iSecrets
by Oceanmistsupporter
Summary: 3 years after Sam Puckett went missing, Freddie's working for the FBI, while Sam is killing people in the dark for an organization. But that's not all Sam's hiding. Can it get any worse? Of course it can. Rated M for violence and sexual references. AU
1. Chapter 1: Oh, There You Are

**(A/N I thought of this a long, long time ago when I was merely a guest on this website. It's going to have a ton of flashbacks and sthuff. Rated T for language, perhaps some violence, and sexual references. Also, we're going to see a lot of the character's children since they are older in this fic)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly. If I did, Seddie would've happened in Season 3 and would've STAYED THAT WAY.**

_Flashback:_

_(Freddie's POV) June 6, 2012. 3:02 P.M._

_ Freddie was never one to anger easily. He had always managed to keep a calm, collected attitude during conflict. He would sometimes break but that's okay. He was strong for the most part, dealing with years and years of Sam's abuse, a whole lifetime of his mother's smothering. Having his childhood and adolescence terroized by a frantic woman with creepy rhymes and jingles and a flash of blonde curls and blue eyes and pounding fists can't help but make him think he's seen the worst of life._

_ Like right now. He's stuck in some of the worst traffic he's ever seen. He glances at the clock in the car, and sees the time._

_ "I'm going to be late," he mutters to himself, since there is no one around to hear, anyways._

_ And yet he's still smiling because of tonight. Yes, he could be as late as he wanted to graduation. It doesn't matter at all. Because nothing, and he means nothing, is going to stop what happens tonight._

(Freddie's POV)

_I'm late!_ Freddie screams in his head. He scrambles for the door, papers flying out of his briefcase. _I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!_

This is not one of those times when Freddie is calm and collected. He is half-dressed, unprepared, and still wearing slippers. He stumbles outside, the sun glaring down on his face. _No, no, no! I can't be late for this!_

He races to his car with his pants half on and his papers shoved in his mouth. He is aware of the other residents of his apartment staring at him, shooing away their children. He ignores them and smacks against his car, his fingers fumbling for the key.

He gets in his car, starts it, and drives out of the parking lot so fast he could hear the screech of his tires. Once he's on the highway, he begins to straighten up. He puts his pants on all the way. Fixes his tie. Organizes his papers.

What happened? He never used to be late. Freddie knitted his eyebrows in confusion as he thinks. How could he possibly be late for this important event? He had alarm clocks and sleeping pills so he could sleep through the night.

_Must of been the nightmares,_ he mumbles to himself. Yes. The nightmares. The cause of everything.

He checks his phone. He groans when he sees all the missed calls from his fellow workers. He checks one of the texts that reads: _"Where the fuck are you!"_

He's too busy driving to respond to the texts, but as he reads beyond the questions on his location, he sees a text from an unknown number.

He opens it up, and it reads: _"Meet me at Bushwell Plaza at 11. You will not regret it."_

The text sends chills up Freddie's spine. He hasn't been to Bushwell Plaza formally in...close to 3 years. Who would want to meet him there? Not Carly, surely...if she wanted to meet, he'd just go to her house. Spencer? Nah, he still lives there, but why would he send that text from an anonymous number?

What if it is...!

He banishes the thought from his mind.

He always does this. He always hopes. There's always the cursed _maybes? _and the _what ifs?_ and the _perhaps?_ He does this to himself, over and over and over.

She isn't coming back.

He checks the clock in his car. It's nearly eleven.

Bushwell Plaza isn't too far away...And he's late already...

No.

She won't be there.

No one he cares about could possibly be there. His mother still lived there but she could call him if she needed him.

He read the text again: _"Meet me at Bushwell Plaza at 11. You will not regret it."_

He has the meeting at twelve. It's an hour and a half away. He would be so late. He wouldn't make it on time. He could miss his chance.

But the chances of her being there-

Some inner force makes Freddie twist the wheel, making the car turn in a 360. The tires are screaming, causing other cars to move away from him.

Oh well.

He's driving towards Bushwell Plaza.

_Flashback:_

_ (Freddie's POV) June 6, 2012. 4:27 P.M._

_ He was wondering why he's been so late all of a sudden. He has always been a perfectionist, always wanted to be on time. So here he is, strolling in late._

_ He remembers an article he read on the internet once. About how when couples are together for so long, they begin picking up each other's traits. _

_ His girlfriend has been late for almost everything he can remember._

_ He shoulders his way into the crowd. He doesn't try to find her. To tell her congratulations for failing all through highschool and somehow graduating. She'll hear his congrats in a few hours or so._

_ He has his cap on, his gown. He's waited for this moment for too long. N.E.R.D. camp really helped him out with the scholarships. He remembers with a smile how his girlfriend really fucked everything up with his application. And how she fixed everything in the end. Responsible for once._

_ Freddie finds Brad in the crowd. He went to N.E.R.D. alongside him, and although Freddie excelled far more than Brad did, they both got scholarships to decent colleges._

_ "Fredward Benson!"_

_ His name is called, and he quivers as he makes his way up the steps and recieves his diploma. There's cheering in the crowd, and he knows his little blonde's cheers are the loudest in the crowd._

_ He wants to leave now, but he has to stick around to see her get her diploma. Then he'll race home so he can surprise her with the shock of her life. Well, not really. But it'll be bittersweet._

_ Finally, her name is called, and no matter what, just hearing the name will send chills down Freddie's spine._

_ "Samantha Puckett!"_

(Freddie's POV)

He had tried calling the number, but it was restricted. He drove up to Bushwell, and looked at the huge building. Wow. It _has_ been a long time.

Is this a dream? He doesn't know...

The phone vibrates.

He opens it up, and sees that he recieved a text. He opens the text, and it says: _"Looking good, Benson. Go down into the underground parking lot...or whatever they call those things."_

The way this person is speaking is beginning to scare Freddie out of his mind. Even the abrasive way the person is speaking is reminding Freddie of...

He begins to walk down into the parking garage, and is soon inside the musty air. Hardly anyone uses this anymore. It's been abandoned and the only lighting is coming from a lightbulb being held by a thread. He goes closer to the light, his hair on edge.

"Hello?" he calls out, his voice rusty and fearful.

"It's been awhile."

He jumps at the sound. The husky voice of someone he once knew.

Okay, it's official. He's dreaming.

In the dusty darkness, he can hardly make out the shape of a girl. No, a woman, it must be so hard to think of her that way. Well, techincally...

This can't be happening.

After a minute or two of complete silence, the only sound being hushed breathing, the woman speaks again: "It's good to see you, Freddie."

He's looking into the ice-blue eyes of Samantha Puckett.

_Flashback:_

_ (Freddie's POV. June 6, 2012. 8:08 P.M.)_

_ He practically sped to Sam's house just so he could wait. Lucky for him, he had a key and Sam's mother was...no one really knew. He knew Sam would wait for the whole thing, how she would savor every last minute of highschool. He couldn't wait to get out of there, while he knew those had been some of the best years of Sam's life._

_ He heard her car drive up, and he heard the car door close. He waited. And waited. He thought he could hear some kind of retching sound, but that might have been the radiator. Then, he heard this five-note whistle. It wasn't the first time he heard it. He doesn't know what it means, but everytime he hears it, he's always with Sam. Finally, the door to the house opened, and he heard Sam step inside._

_ He heard her pause, heard her cease breathing. "Hello?" she called, warily._

_ He stopped breathing so she couldn't hear him. But he knew she knew he was there._

_ She slowly walks past her kitchen table, looking around for him. She hadn't turned the lights on, so it was pitch black. Only the moonlight that shown through the window had visiblity. He couldn't see her, he could only hear her footsteps._

_ "Freddie!" she snaps angrily. "This isn't funny! Cut it out!"_

_ He's still crouching beside the couch, poised to strike._

_ She walks slowly around her kitchen. "Where are you?" she calls. The moonlight coming through a window catches her for a second, and he can see the wavy blonde curls that fall down her shoulders. The careless purple flannel she changed into. The skinny jeans she kept on under her robe because she thought it was too girly to go without them. Suddenly, he's so excited and trembling, he's surprised he hadn't come out of hiding yet._

_ She is right beside him now, as she makes her way to the living room. Only a few inches away. "Fre-" she begins._

_ He doesn't let her finish._

_ He pounces at her legs, making her fall. For a second she's totally tense as she falls down, and he slides his hands under her head and neck to soften her fall. In one quick, breathless second, he grasps her until she's completely imprisoned in his arms. And he won't let her go._

_ She says nothing, although he can hear her heartbeat pounding against his._

_ Minutes go by. Finally, Freddie drops his lips down to her ear, and he whispers in the most husky, seductive way possible: "You know, anything that happens in the next few hours is now completely legal."_

_ Sam looks up at him, and even in the complete darkness, he knows she's smirking. "As if that stopped us before."_

_ Within a matter of seconds they're unbuttoning clothes, feeling each other, and making out all at the same time. It wasn't their first time, they have done it so many times they'd stopped keeping track, but they lost it with each other and were hoping to keep it that way. Sam's mouth tasted of mint and...something else, something he couldn't think of. Sam gripped his shoulders with her smaller hands, so icy cold to his bare skin, and pulled him down with her._

(Freddie's POV)

This isn't happening.

Three years. It's been three years since he last saw Sam Puckett. Those three years of lonliness and bitterness. She wasn't really here, was she? He had dreamt this dream far too many times.

Sam, or whatever his sick, twisted mind manifested in his mind to be Sam, looks at him and waits for a response. If this wasn't a dream, he would say that Sam looks kind of scared. Of what? What does it matter?

"Sam?" is the only sound that comes out of his mouth.

"That's me." came the shaky reply.

He's staring at her as if she was the angel of death. Maybe she could be. In this dark air, all he can see with the tiny lightbulb was dust particles flitting around. Her face looks dark, she herself looks dark. The only thing gleaming is her bright blue eyes.

There are over a million things Freddie wants to ask Sam. So, so, so many things. The list doesn't end. And here he is, standing face-to-face with the person he hasn't seen in three years.

Three sad, lonely, single years.

He and Sam have never, ever been good with words. So she seems to except his silence at first. Finally, he forces the words out of his mouth.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Even in the darkness, he can make out Sam's mouth moving in a grin. This infuritates him beyond imaginable. "Oh, just around." She says lightly, taking a very small step towards him.

"Just around?" He echoes. Just around? That's where she's been? She's been _missing_ for three years and she's _just around?_ He has been searching, and calling, and sobbing at night for her to come back. _And she's just been "around"?_ "So, after all this time, you've just been around?" He takes a tiny step closer. "Do you know how long I've-"

"As if it was easy for me." Sam spits out. She seems to double in size when she gets angry. Her dark blonde hair was now visible as she takes another step closer.

Then he notices something else.

Bruises. Around Sam's eye. And her cheek. It suddenly strikes him that this isn't the eighteen year old girl who left him behind three years ago. If anything, she seems even smaller. Beaten. Injured.

He takes a step closer, to observe more. She seems to sense that and moves backward for a half-second.

"Sam," he says, his voice rough from shock at seeing her and now a new anger. Whatever put her in this condition is going to be fucked over. "What happened? Where have you been?"

"I just needed to see you." She says. Her voice sounds empty. "Is Carly and them alright?" She takes a step closer

"Sam!" Freddie hisses. "You need to tell me why you left! And what are you doing now?" He drops his voice. "What happened to you?" He takes a step closer

Sam grins for a half-second. He doesn't know why, but it's kinda scary. What's she going to tell him? She takes a step closer.

"You really did know nothing, did you?" Her voice, it sounds so fragile and broken. And yet she's smiling. Why? _Why?_ "Your new job should'a told you by now."

"It starts today." Freddie felt himself growing impatient. "Tell me where you have been. Now. Do you need help?" He takes a step closer.

"Just go." Sam says. "You'll find out in good time." When she steps closer to him, they are practically brushing against each other. This is sending shudders through Freddie's body. He looks down at her, at her smiling face. What is she hiding?

Freddie just looks at her sadly. "You aren't going to tell me? Because I'll find out on my own if you're going to be this way. I'm not giving up on you now, Puckett."

She teasingly traces the pattern on his suit he wore. "All in good time, baby..." she murmurs.

"You always were a tease, weren't you?" Freddie says tiredly.

"You betcha." She rises on her tiptoes and kisses Freddie on his cheek, making him freeze. This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real.

"Sam." He says. His voice is breaking now. He can't let her slip away from him this time. "Just tell me-"

Suddenly, he hears the five-note whistle. Sam's blue eyes widen and she pulls away from him.

"Sam, wait-" he calls.

He hears her turn her heel and dash away from him. The sound of her sneakers is heard for a few seconds as she distances herself away from him.

He attempts to run after her, but he doesn't know his way around in the darkness. He has no chance in finding her at the moment.

"Sam, come back!" He wailed.

_Flashback:_

_ (Freddie's POV) June 7th, 2012. 7:14 A.M.)_

_ He opens his eyes, and he is immediately grateful that at least some time during the night he and Sam decided to take their "party" to the bed. He is aware that he isn't wearing any clothes, so he stays under the blanket. He turns to the side, expecting to see his girlfriend of over a year sleeping beside him, her golden curls fallen over her eyes._

_ But, she wasn't there._

_ Did she go to make herself breakfast already? He shuffles on some shorts he found on the floor (no idea whether or not they were from last night) and makes his way to the kitchen._

_ Not there._

_ Where is she? He looked around the house. "Sam?" he called._

_ No response._

_ He goes outside for a sec, looking. He calls her name again, and he spots something. In the bushes. He makes his way over to them, and sees that she through her cap and gown into them. Pulling them up, he also sees vomit. Was that were the retching sound was coming from? What's going on?_

_ He calls her phone. Within seconds, he hears the monotone voice say, "We are sorry, but the number 503-664-0452 has been disconnected."_

_ Now he's afraid. He searches through his house again, looking anywhere. Everywhere. Then he sees a note crumbled up near the table._

_ He jumps for it, and unfolds it quickly. But the letters in front of him make no sense. Just random letters._

_ No. Think. They have to mean something. This is Sam Puckett we are talking about. She spent her whole life living on rhymes and puzzles and guessing games. When is mother coming home? Well, she just got a new boyfriend, she just bought some Jack Daniels, and she's been gone for six hours. Six year old Sam Puckett would realize that she wasn't getting fed that night so she'd fight the cats for some garbage outside. She had to solve these kinds of puzzles for as long as she could remember. So leave it to Sam to bring the trouble, the puzzles, the games to him._

_ He tried rewriting the letters backwards. No luck. He tried writing out both their names so each letter stood for a letter of their names. No, that didn't work either. Finally, he tries making a chart that makes all the letters go backwards. Each letter in the alphabet stands for its opposite. And he gets the message:_

_ "Freddie, I love you but I need to leave. I'm protecting you as I'm doing this. Goodbye."_

_ Freddie had refused to except this result. He reported her missing, he and Carly searched for days alongside police. No, no, no, no! This can't be happening!_

_ Days turn into weeks, which turns into months. Finally, after a month of searching, the grieved face of a police officer as he approaches Freddie means one thing._

_ Sam has left him for good._

_ Freddie drove to his apartment that night. He stumbled into his room, ignoring his mother and the world. He sat on his bed and cried._

_ And cried. And cried. And cried._

_ He cried for Sam, hoping that whatever made her leave could be killed because he'd fucking destroy it when he has the chance. He cried for himself, having his heart broken by the girl he loved._

_ And he cried for the ring in his pocket he was going to give her once they had woken up._


	2. Chapter 2: FBI

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie forced himself to think as he drove down the highway. This is insane. Sam Puckett, the girl who dropped off the face of the Earth for three years has finally revealed herself to him. He went to M.I.T. and he needs to make sure.

Late. He's too late. He'll probably miss his chance for his job. Still, he pulls his car up to the FBI official building. Shaking, he walked into the building.

He was greeted with Brad slamming his palms into Freddie's chest. "You idiot!" Brad hissed. "Where the hell have you been?"

"You don't want to know," Freddie growled back. Brad had every right to be mad, but Freddie can't deal with this right now. "Are they pissed?"

"Yeah, kind of!" Brad was straightening his tie. "Look, I shouldn't be telling you this, because you don't handle stress well-"

"What?" Freddie interrupted. "That's not true!" _If only you knew the half of it! _He wailed silently to himself.

"Whatever. There's been talk that the executive's been looking at you. I mean, you've lived in Seattle all your life. They say you being on the tech team will benefit them."

"But why?" Freddie asks, his voice dripping with confusion. "It's not like we would be out catching criminals. We're just the computer crew."

"Maybe it goes deeper." Brad just shrugged.

"Are we going to get our results?" Freddie asks.

"Eventually. I've been waiting for an hour." Brad says. His baige-blonde hair falls over his forehead. He looks exactly the same as he did years ago, when he first met him.

"..." Freddie wonders if he should ask Brad. He looks at his shoes, then finally says, "...Brad? You think we made it?"

"_You _defintely did." Brad says. "As if they would turn down someone who graduated from M.I.T. in only three years."

"Yeah, but-" Freddie was interrupted by the secretary telling him to go to the tech room. Brad nods good luck to him, and with trembling legs he lead himself to the office.

It was probably the most beautiful thing that wasn't living and breathing and _blonde_ that Freddie has ever seen. Just tech. Endless tech. Mircochips and PCs and Peartops and even things he couldn't identify. He was marveling at the beauty of it all when a guy who was about thirty approached him.

"You must be Mr. Benson." He held his hand out. "It's an honor to meet you. I'm Richard Mitchell, one of the lead chiefs in the tech department."

"Wait, this is Fredward Benson!" A younger guy with glasses who was working one of the computers stood up in shock. "_The _Fredward Benson?"

Within seconds, Freddie was surrounded by what can only be considered as nerds. They all were talking at one time, asking questions. He thought he heard one say how awesome he was.

"Stop and look," Mr. Mitchell says, putting a hand on Freddie's shoulder and pulling him away from the cluster. The nerds reformed back into a line, watching intently. "Yes, this is Fredward Benson, our new Tech Supervisor."

The nerds began clapping. Mr. Mitchell went on," At the age of twenty-one, Fredward Benson has already graduated from M.I.T. with his Master's Degree in tech and computers. He will make a great addition to the team."

The nerds began clapping again, and Freddie ducked his head at the praise.

"Now everyone, back to work!" Mr. Mitchell says, and once everyone cleared out, he says to Freddie, "Now, it is required we show every new member of the team this. Follow me."

Bewildered, Freddie followed the man to a room. He watched as Mr. Mitchell pressed his hand to the scan. _I know how to crack into that,_ Freddie thought weakly. Then he watched, amazed, at the other tests he had to go through. Tongue scan, eye scan, hair scan, voice test... Maybe it'd be a bit more difficult than Freddie thought.

Mr. Mitchell led Freddie to a computer. He turned his gaze on Freddie and says, "You know how everyone in the FBI must know what the top ten most wanted are?"

"Yes." Freddie replies. He had already memorized it for this job, though. Should he tell him that?

"Well, we're dealing with a problem here." Mr. Mitchell says, his eyes dark. "There's been talk of secret organizations going around for decades. What look like innocent gangs can be much more, and we must be prepared for anything."

"What makes them a threat?" Freddie asks.

"It's mostly just two gangs that are at each other's throats. The things they're willing to do to kill the other side can be frightening. Innocent citzens can be murdered." Mr. Mitchell began loading something on the computer. "We...we were glad you joined us, Fredward, because one of the gangs is always spotted in Seattle. The We wanted to know if you have seen any of these indiviuals."

"Let me see them," Freddie says, looking at the list.

The list showed the person's name and a picture Some of the members had names listed and some didn't. A lot of them didn't have many pictures up, and if they did, they were fuzzy and hardly defined. Some had pictures of them in prison. Freddie couldn't regconize most of them: The speculated leader of them, the woman with the pointy, sharp features looked kind of familiar, the broad-shouldered blonde looked like someone he once knew... He wasn't sure.

He clicked through the endless speculated people, the endless fuzzy pictures. Finally, a picture came up, along with a name, that froze Freddie in place.

_Samantha Puckett_ with a picture of her in prison.

_Flashback:_

_ (Freddie's POV) April 8th, 2012. 9:17 A.M._

_ "Wake up!" Freddie's eyes snapped open to see Sam less than an inch away from his face. Her golden curls with brushing his cheeks. "Come on, you've been asleep for like, two hours!"_

_ Freddie responded by gripping the back of Sam's neck and pulling her down to kiss her. She grips his shoulders, and he tilts his head upward to get more. But now Sam was pulling away from him._

_ "Tease!" he groans, flopping back and acting overly-dramatic._

_ "Didn't you get enough last night?" Sam says, winking at him._

_ "I can't ever get enough of you." Freddie responds, trying to be an old-school romantic, but Sam was already hauling him up out of bed._

_ "Come on! Can you make me breakfast?" She asks, making a puppy dog face._

_ "Sam, you had me up all night. Can't I sleep a little more?" Freddie says, falling back into bed._

_ "Oh, okay. So I won't keep you up anymore with that." Sam says, her voice indifferent._

_ Freddie, realizing that was the complete opposite of what he wanted, stood right back up. "Kay, it'll be ready in ten minutes."_

_ "It's sad I have to manipulate you with that," Sam calls after him._

_ "Nyehh!"_

_ "Nyehh!"_

_ Freddie begins to crack the eggs over the pan. He constantly spends the night over Sam's place since Sam's mom is never home and his mom works at the hospital. They can't ever spend the night over at Freddie's house (his mom has cameras around to catch them doing anything... Controversial.) so if they ever want to do...stuff...they do it at Sam's house._

_ Sam stumbles into the kitchen, and kisses Freddie on his mouth. Before she can pull away in a half second he grips her waist and won't let her go. She pushes him away._

_ "What was that for?" Freddie whines._

_ "Don't start doing...that." Sam snaps._

_ "Doing what?" He asks all too innocently._

_ "It's too early for anything like that!" she groans._

_ "Whatever you say, Princess Puckett." He says, returning his attention back to the frying food._

_ He glances at Sam over his shoulder. She was splayed across the table, looking at her texts on her phone. Her bright, carefree face suddenly drops when she reads something._

_ "Is anything wrong?" Freddie asks her."_

_ "I...uh..." Sam begins to move. She suddenly shuffles for her bright pink hoodie he had gotten her for her birthday. "I gotta go real quick."_

_ "Wait, Sam-" Freddie calls after her. "What about-"_

_ She was already out the door._

_ His shoulders slumped. This isn't the first time something like this happened. Her leaving eruptly after reading a text or recieving a call. He should be concerned, but Sam is a girl just like any other at times. It was probably something with Carly, or with Wendy, or something._

_ Of course Sam is the most diverse person/girl/creature he had ever met. He'll figure out what is wrong eventually. She'll let him in eventually. She always does._

_ But for tonight, oh well. There goes his chances of getting laid tonight._

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie felt sick to his stomach when he saw Sam in the list. This list, this list full of killers and gangbangers and violent indiviuals... Sam was on it. Sam's personal alone is killer and violent, but the thought of her actually going out and cutting someone-

Freddie looks at the pictures. There was some of her when she was arrested four times, but the fuzzy ones really got his attention. His heart almost stops when he saw a picture of her wearing the pink hoodie he got her. The date that picture was taken might have been the same day she left him that morning in April.

More and more fuzzy pictures. Some he wasn't even sure they were her. A scrap of the pink hoodie here, a flash of blonde curls there... And then he saw one from 2008. The same year they started iCarly.

_She's been with this group for that long?_ Freddie thought, his thoughts getting dizzy. Why didn't she tell him...?

"Do you regconize this girl?" Mr. Mitchell asks him.

This gang has been wanted for, what Mr. Mitchell said, decades. And he just saw one of the members _today!_ He needed to tell him about what he saw, right? He was sworn under oath to do that...

"No." Freddie said stiffly. "I don't think so."

_Flashback:_

_ (Sam's POV) April 8th, 2012. 9:36 A.M._

_ Sam jumped out of her car and scrambled into the alley. She goes into the right alleyway next to it, then the left one, and then sideways, then repeat, then going down the staircase that lead to the dark._

_ Once light was no longer visible, she let out her five-note whistle. Ten seconds go by before finally someone responds with the whistle. And then another. And then another. Sam follows the sound, and she feels herself brushing against another person._

_ "Ultraviolet." Sam whispers under her breath._

_ "Goldielocks." Ultraviolet replies, her voice thin and unbreaking. "Where the hell have you been?"_

_ "Busy." Sam replies._

_ "Busy with what?" A deep voice asks._

_ Sam turns to him. "X-Rated, it's none of your business."_

_ "None of my business?" X-Rated scoffs. "You're under eighteen. We're responsible for you until you can fucking take care of yourself."_

_ "I can't take care of myself?" Sam hisses, grasping X-Rated's collar. "I have a blackbelt, I mastered in martial arts, I know every single one of your pressure points and which can kill you, and I know over ninety different ways to kill you with my bare hands. And I can't take care of myself?"_

_ Sam could picture X-Rated grinning, his dark russet hair falling over his forehead. "That's my Goldielocks."_

_ Sam shoves him away. "And anyways, it will be my birthday in less than two weeks." Then she paused. "Didn't I hear one more whistle?"_

_ "You're late."_

_ The icy-cold voice of Severa reached Sam's ears. She knew it was directed at her, and she was glad that the darkness masked her fear._

_ Except she was convinced Severa could smell fear._

_ "Goldielocks, what have you been up to?" Severa says, her voice playing in Sam's head._

_ "Nothing." Sam replies, her voice not giving her terror away. She never has been one to show fear. "I was just late."_

_ "Oh really?" Severa says viciously. "I'm so sorry that you don't trust us. I thought we were all an organization."_

_ Sam felt stung. "I'm loyal to The just like everyone else."_

_ "So, you haven't been sneaking out to see anyone." Severa states._

_ Sam hates it when people do that. When people switch a question into an accusation. "I haven't been seeing anyone. I'm more than loyal to this organization, and you know that."_

_ "Then prove it."_

_ And Severa's footsteps faded away. Sam could feel X-Rated and Ultraviolet's warm breathing nearby._

_ "I have to go." Sam murmurs. "I'll be on time next time." _

_ "You better." Ultraviolet says. The two walk away together, and Sam was left in the darkness._

_ Sam felt bitter as she made her way back to her house. It wasn't fair. The organization strictly banned romances with anyone outside the Clan. But it wasn't like she was seeing someone in the opposing Clan. No, she was simply in love with someone far more innocent than anyone she has ever known. No one needs to know. Not Severa, not Ultraviolet, not even X-Rated._

_ It's none of their business._

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie drives over the speedlimit once he's let out of the place. He's heading to an old friend's house. Sam won't let him in. And now he just found out that she is a part of some organization that _kills._

He needs to know. She can't keep him out forever.

Sam has always been kind of shady at times. Constantly disappearing, on some days acting out of the ordinary... For about as long as he can remember. He just figured it was part of her spacey personality.

But now he knew that she was a part of something that is making the FBI shiver under their skin. Something that could make history, like the Mafia. Something that explains her bruises.

He attempts to call the number she texted him from but it was restricted. He can't get a hold of her. He had no idea where she went. He needs to find her. Right now.

He gets to his friend's house, gets out of his car, and knocks on the door. She managed to live in a surburban now, unlike the apartment she grew up in.

A man answers the door, and says, "Hello? Freddie?"

"Alex," Freddie says evenly, dipping his head in politeness. "Good to see you. Is Carly home?"

"Yes, she's-" Alex is interrupted by a squeaking voice. A boy of the age of three stumbles to the door, his wide brown eyes staring up at him. He looks like a minature version of Carly.

"Hi! I'm Max. What's your name?" The boy says, looking up at Freddie.

Freddie gives him a little smile. "Hello, I'm Freddie. Is your mother home?"

"Freddie?"

The pretty brunette walked down the stairs near the doorway, her large brown eyes staring at him. She is pregnant; Freddie remembers the email she sent him. She comes to the door and places her hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Hello Carly," Freddie says. "May I talk to you for a bit?"

Alex looks like he'd rather do otherwise, but Carly says, "Yes, come inside."

Freddie steps in, and takes off his shoes. "It's been awhile."

Carly looked hurt. "You almost never answer my emails."

"I did that one time..." Freddie argued.

"Follow me." Freddie followed the young woman into her living room. He can't help but admire the house. He always promised that he would have a house like that someday, because ever since he was four he had been living out of apartments, at grandparent houses. It was a miracle that in sixth grade they came to Bushwell Plaza, which they managed to stay in for a while.

"Now, what did you need to talk about?" Carly asks him, blinking at him with her eyelashes lined with mascara.

"It's about..." Freddie trails off. Practically anything him and Carly ever talk about is their long lost friend.

"Sam?" She finishes.

"Yeah..." Freddie looks at the ground. "I just wanted to know... You've known her since second grade..."

"Yeah..." She says in the same way she used to when they were teens.

"When did she start acting so..." Freddie grouped for words. "Different?"

"Different how?"

"Always disappearing. Hiding things..." Freddie looked at Carly. "Anything?"

"Hmm..." Carly glanced away. "She...she's kinda always been like that. Maybe around tenth grade?"

_But the pictures were before tenth grade,_ Freddie argues in his head.

"Why are you asking this?" Carly asks gently. "Do we need to talk about..."

"Carly." Freddie says rustily. "I need to know."

"What?" she asks.

"When was the last time you saw Sam?"

_Flashback:_

_ (Carly's POV) June 5th, 2012. 6:15 P.M._

_ Carly doesn't like waiting. She wasn't the kind of person who would bicker and argue and resort to regression when she's been waiting for a while, but she always feels the impatient bug crawling up and through her. Come on. Where is he?_

_ She looks at the stick that lies on the bathroom sink. She trembles at the sight of it. "Thank God we're almost out of school," she murmurs to herself, but it doesn't hide the fear and excitement she feels inside._

_ She hears the door open, and she can't help but grin and grin. "Alex," she calls. "Come in here." _

_ Her boyfriend walks through the door, and kisses her gently. "Hey sweetness," he says. "What's wrong? You sent me like five texts."_

_ "Look." she says, and hands him the stick. His green-rimmed hazel eyes widen at the little plus sign on it. She waits for him to respond. Maybe he won't._

_ "Are you..." Carly's voice trails off._

_ "You're..." Alex searches for words. "Pregnant?"_

_ "Uhm...yeah..." she says, feeling terror strike through her. He wasn't mad, was he? It was him who wanted IT 95% of the time. _

_ "Carly, that's GREAT." Is all Alex can say before Carly jumps into his arms. It occurs to her that it would be okay, but still..._

_ "What about you and college?" Carly asks, looking up at him. "You are leaving in a few months._

_ "It's only a couple hours away," Alex soothed. "We can handle it, I promise. Did you tell anyone else?"_

_ "No," Carly says, her voice rising. "I had to tell you first. But I have to tell Sam! And Freddie. Oh my God, I'll be right back." Carly jumps past him and runs out the door._

_ "Don't stress yourself!" Alex yells after her._

_ Carly gets into her car and drives to Sam's house. She really hoped Sam was alone there and Freddie wasn't over. She shuddered to think about the things they do behind closed doors. She knew it wasn't too pretty. At least to her._

_ Luckily, Freddie's car wasn't in the driveway. Or Sam's mom's. Where has she been, anyway? She's been leaving a lot more often now that Sam is eighteen. And can handle herself. Hell, she's been handling herself ever since she could toddle._

_ Carly is about to knock on the door when she hears a clash. Carly backs away. What as that? Glass breaking? She looked through the window._

_ Sam is backed into a corner. Her blue eyes are about as wide as Carly has ever seen them. Two young adults were cornering the blonde, their eyes blazing with fury. One of them was a broad-shouldered guy with russet hair that falls in dapples over his forehead. The other was a smaller girl with thin, dark hair. Both of them were dressed in black, and the girl had a knife in her hand._

_ Carly was about to call 9-1-1 when Sam says, "Look, you're overreacting."_

_ "You fucking idiot!" The girl hisses, her small shoulders stiff. "Do you not get what's happening here? Severa will cut you for this personally I'd imagine."_

_ "Not if you help me here," Sam says, her voice tight and controlled._

_ "Help you how?" The guy sneers. "We've been helping you since you were seven years old. And you go and betray us like this."_

_ "Betray?" Sam says in disbelief. "The rule is STUPID! He is completely harmless. He's not part of them."_

_ "How do you know that?" The guy snaps._

_ Sam looks at him. "If you saw him, you'd understand."_

_ "Let me put this to you in perspective." The dark-haired girl growls. "When Severa finds out about this, she will cut you, and him, and all of your family and his family. And if anyone goes looking for any of you, they die also."_

_ "Look, I have a plan." Sam says. "If you listen to me, you'll hear it._

_ The three cluster together. Carly has to strain to hear them. She can hardly hear Sam's hushed whisper. She can make out the words __**pretend**__, and __**sister**__, and __**X-Rated**__. The three pulled away._

_ "That would never work," The guy says stiffly. "We never had anything going on."_

_ "We could say it was an one-night stand. We could swear on it. X-Rated, you have to help me with this." She gently touches his arm and looks into his eyes, just like she does for Freddie. Except a few minutes later she'd start making out with Freddie and he'd drag her into a closet, but that's besides the point._

_ The two young adults exchange a worried glance. Finally, the guy says, "Fine. But you owe me for this."_

_ "She already owes us." The girl snaps. "We'll talk later tonight, after your graduation." The two disappear out the back door, and Carly watches Sam as she stands in her kitchen._

_ Then Sam does something she's done in front of Carly three times in the eleven years they've known each other._

_ She starts to cry._

_ Carly can't take it anymore. She shoves the front door open. Sam stops in her tracks and looks at her, her wide blue eyes smeared with eyeliner and mascara from running tears._

_ "Carly?" She gasps._

_ "Sam! What happened? What's wrong?" Carly runs to her friend._

_ Sam backs away as if Carly was the angel of death. "Carly, why are you here?" She half wails._

_ "I needed to tell you something, but tell me what happened first!" Carly insisted._

_ "Nothing happened," Sam says in her old Sam voice, as if nothing happened._

_ "I saw it, Sam." Carly says impatiently. See, the impatience is rising again. "I saw everything, with those two people-"_

_ "Wait, you saw that?" Sam says, her voice shrill with panic. "What did you see? What did you HEAR?"_

_ "Something about you being in trouble, and a plan..." Carly trails off, seeing the terror in Sam's eyes. "Sam, I can help you. You have to tell me what's wrong."_

_ Now Sam was getting a bit angry. "No, I don't." She growls. "I don't have to tell you jack! Just leave me alone!"_

_ "Sam, we're best friends!" Carly says, her voice desperate. "All of us can help you with whatever you're going through. You just need to tell us. Me, and Freddie-"_

_ Sam seems to snap at the mention of Freddie's name. "Get out of here!" She screams. "Get the fuck out of here, now!"_

_ Carly backs outside, and Sam slams the door in her face. Carly runs to the window, but Sam is shutting the blinds. Carly is left outside, and alone._

_ Carly beats her fists on the door. "Sam, open up! We need to talk."_

_ And there was no reply, except for the soft sound of Sam's sobs._

(Freddie's POV)

After Carly finished telling the story, Freddie was ready to jump out of his skin. "What? What didn't you tell me this before?"

"I told the police, but that was it. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone." Carly pleads.

"What? Why?"

"You know Sam wouldn't have wanted me to," Carly says briskly.

"Oh? What if those two people killed her!" Freddie knows this isn't true, since he just saw Sam earlier that day. But Carly hasn't seen her in three years, and immediately tears spring in Carly's eyes.

_Okay, that was the wrong thing to say,_ Freddie thinks to himself. "Look, I have to go." He says briskly, stepping outside rather quickly. He was upset for making Carly cry, but he had a point.

As he drove away, he knew he should ask others what they knew. What happened to Sam before she left. Just so he'd know.

Just so he could find her.

She can't hide forever.

No matter how much she wants to.


	3. Chapter 3: Mindlessly Killing

_ Flashback:_

_ (Sam's POV) June 5th, 2012. 6:30 P.M._

_ No._

_ No no no no._

_ This can't be happening._

_ Her, Sam Puckett, daughter of Pam Puckett, twin sister of Melanie Puckett, best friend of Carly Shay, girlfriend of Freddie Benson, 1st place Beauty Pagent winner, and the owner of the world record for most ham eaten in an hour was offically, offically, offically fucked over._

_ And she only has herself to blame._

_ Well, not quite. It's his fault too, but she can't blame him for ANYTHING. She brought this on herself._

_ Carly finally stopped banging on the door, and Sam can hear her car pull away. She glanced over her shoulder just to make sure that Ultraviolet and X-Rated had left. They can be sneaky sometimes._

_ Her plan could work. It could work, even though Severa is the suspicious type. If everything goes as plan, no one would be cut out of the picture._

_ Except her._

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie doesn't know why he's headed to Gibby's place. Well, techically Charles's place, but he'll always be Gibby to Freddie.

He doubts Gibby would know anything. How could he know anything? Still, he needs to ask, since he got so much info out of Carly.

He pulls up to Gibby's house, which is a surburban house of average necessites. It looks so normal compared to Gibby's outragerous personality. He wonders how Gibby's neighbors deal with it.

But maybe Gibby has changed. Freddie knows very well how much people can change. Carly really hadn't changed, though. She ended up like everyone thought she would, marrying a rich doctor who got her pregnant at the end highschool. Still, they were all seniors that year so it wasn't _that_ odd.

He knocks on the door and braces himself for the worst.

And when Gibby answers the door, he says, "GIBBAYYYY."

Well, okay, maybe he hasn't changed.

A pretty girl steps out from behind him. Freddie recognizes Tasha. "Hello," she says, her lower voice bright. "Freddie? Is that you?"

"It's me." He replies softly.

"It's been so long!" Gibby says cheerfully. "How've you been, buddy? We saw your headline in the newspaper about making the top tech supervisor in the FBI!"

"Yeah, I did." Freddie let pride flood over him. "I came to ask Charles a few questions."

"You can still call me Gibby," Gibby says. "I-"

A loud shriek interrupted him. Freddie had little time to turn his head when something leaped at his face out of nowhere. He fell to the ground. Whatever grasped his face was warm and was pulling at his hair.

"Gabby!" Gibby says, his voice all too calm. "Let him go."

The little girl let go of him, and Freddie just looked up at her. She looked to be about two years old, but already standing upright. Where did she jump from? Freddie lifted his head weakly and saw a shelf. She must have been playing _Crouching Tiger_ the entire time.

Tasha gathered the child in her arms. "This is a friend of Daddy's," Tasha told her sternly. "No jumping at his face. Okay, Gabby?"

Gabby just giggled.

"I'm going to ask your mom to watch her for awhile, okay, Charlie?" Tasha says to Gibby.

"Of course, babe." Gibby said, kissing her on her mouth before Tasha went into the other room.

"We're living at my mom's place," Gibby tells Freddie, who's still on the floor. "Come on, get up. You said you had a question?"

Freddie stands up, and he and Gibby sit at his kitchen table. "Gibby," Freddie begins. "It's been awhile since..._any_ of us have seen Sam."

"Sam?" Gibby says.

"Don't you remember her?"

"Of course I remember her," Gibby scoffs. "You don't forget someone like Sam."

_Ain't that the truth,_ Freddie muses to himself.

"Why are you thinking about Sam?" Gibby asks. "Look, I know you two were close, but it's been three years already!"

"Yes, I am aware of the timeline." Freddie says roughly. "But look, I'm just trying to figure out what happened. When's the last time you saw her?"

_Flashback:_

_(Gibby's POV) June 7th, 2012. 4:11 A.M._

_ Gibby's never been one to follow orders._

_ Like right now. Now, he's defying the law of time. No, he will NOT sleep at 4 in the morning. He took a catnap right after he got home from graduation. Sorry time, but you're out of luck._

_He went out for a little while to go and get something for him and Tasha to eat. She had been perfectly fine when he left. Bright, cheerful, happy because she just got to visit her sister who was just about to move out of the hood. Gibby hated it when Tasha went into those kinds of places just so she could visit her sister. Oh well. There's no stopping her._

_ After coming back with food, he was greeted by a frantic Tasha with red eyes from crying._

_ "What's wrong, babe?" he asked quickly._

_ "I lost my mother's locket!" her broken voice replied._

_ "Where's the last you saw it?"_

_ "I-I don't know, I remembered I showed it to my sister, but I could've sworn I put it back in my purse!" Tasha's voice is rising in hysteria and Gibby puts his hand on her shoulder._

_ "I'll go to her place and get it now," Gibby promises._

_ "Wait, no!" She gasps. "It's four in the morning!"_

_ "So?" He's already going out the door._

_ "Gibby!" She wails. "Please, PLEASE be careful!"_

_ "GIBBAYY!" He calls back as he leaps on his bicycle. He had a car, yes, but he always was better off on his bike. With the wind blowing back his spiky hair, and the sheer bliss of the open world around him, he felt so... Gibby._

_ Her sister's house isn't too far because Tasha currently isn't living in too good of a neighborhood. Luckily, the moon was full and was giving off light. As he pedals, he can't help but reflect on how much he loved his girl. He may be one of the only people on this earth (except for his mother and Guppy) that actually excepts him for who he is. He's always protrayed as the weird one, the odd one, the sticky one. It's about time that someone sees past the haze and sees the guy on the inside. Sam could do it for Freddie, and Tasha can do it for him._

_ Also, he knows Tasha has been through a lot. Her mother died when she was ten, her father is hardly ever around. Her grandmother takes care of her, but ever since she got sick a year ago, she's been living in foster home after foster home. She is already eighteen but had to lie about her age. No one can know she's over eighteen or they'd kick her out. And she'd be on the streets._

_ Gibby was at her sister's doorstep when he sees the glittering locket on the ground. It must have fallen out of her purse. Gibby picked it up and shoved it in his pocket, looking both ways to make sure no one saw. The locket was pure silver. Some gang members could get good money off of it._

_ He was riding through alleyways when he heard a terrified scream. And then a thump. What was that? Gibby didn't hear any footsteps or anything. He stopped pedaling for a second._

_ And then the sound of footsteps running towards him made Gibby jump._

_ "Gibby!"_

_ Gibby turned his head. In the dim moonlight, he could hardly make out the shadow of a woman staring back at him. In one hand, she held a knife._

_ That isn't a good sign._

_ "Gibby!" she hisses again. Gibby knows that voice. The low, husky voice of the girl who has made his life hell for as long as he can remember._

_ "Sam?" he calls out in confusion._

_ "Oh, God damn it!" she says, a note of hysteria in her voice. "You're going to ruin everything!"_

_ Gibby heard the faint sound of a blanket being ruffled, and Sam seemed to physically tense up. "Look, they're coming." she says. "You need to get the fuck out of here. Don't you know you can't hang around here?"_

_ "I..." Gibby trails off._

_ "Just get out of here! I'll hold them back." Sam turned her heel and, with a screech of the friction between her shoe and the ground and a flash of blonde curls, she was gone._

_ Gibby began to pedal away. The last thing he heard was a five-note whistle being exchanged between three people._

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie gave Gibby the same look of disbelief that he gave Carly. "Why didn't you tell me before! We could have had a clue to where she was!"

"I told the police that she used to go over there, but I didn't want to tell them!" Gibby says, his voice kind of high. "I didn't want to get caught up in that shit. I told you I heard someone scream!"

Freddie felt his thoughts racing, and then Gibby says, "Freddie...I think you need to let it go."

"Let what go?" Freddie says as if he didn't know the answer.

"You know what I mean." Gibby looked at him with an obvious look. "Sam's been gone for three years, and she probably isn't coming back. Why don't you move on with someone else? You've been single the entire time."

_So!_ Freddie almost snapped at him. But what Gibby said was true. He hasn't been with a single girl since Sam. He remembers that girl at work, the girl who kept winking at him and brushing against his arm, but he hasn't noticed. He is going to keep waiting for Sam, and now more so since she just revealed herself to him.

"Look," Freddie says, standing up. "You...you don't know what I'm going through." He walks away stiffly and leaves, closing the door behind him.

He gets into his car, and begins to drive home. He gazes up at the setting sun, and heads down Valleyedge street.

_Flashback:_

_(Sam's POV) March 8th, 2001 9:11 P.M._

_ Hunger._

_ That may be one of the strongest emotions out there. People say how love conquers all, or sadness can send you into a spiraling depression, or how anger can control your mind, but all in all, the raging feeling of not eating for almost three days was the strongest emotion Sam is feeling._

_ She decides to go and check the garbage outside. She already checked it, like...five times this hour. She didn't have OCD or anything, but she was so desperate to go back to the garbage can and realize that she overlooked some bread crumbs, or maybe some scattered salt, or even a dead rat that had starved alongside her._

_ The house is cold-no heat-and dark. Her mother hasn't been home for five days. Sam managed to get by the first few days by eating out of the garbage, but as it slowly dwindled down to nothing, she hasn't really been eating. She knew her mother had gotten a new boyfriend, and whenever that happens her mother disappears for a day or two. But, she had happened to leave without stocking the fridge this time, and spent all of the money buying drinks and cigarettes._

_ Oh, well. Looks like little Princess Puckett is fucked tonight._

_ Melanie is so lucky. She managed to get out of this hellhole. While their father disappeared, their aunt always looked out for them. And Melanie began staying over their aunt's house more and more until she practically starting living there._

_ So now Sam is here alone._

_ She goes back out to the garbage can. Her head is dizzy and she can't see straight. The rain is pouring outside, puddles mixing with mud. The black cat who always seems to be there hisses at her, but seven year old Sam, now unfazed by it, just hissed back. She carefully opens the lid of the trashcan._

_ Still empty._

_ As if it would magically fill anyway. Sam reached up to put the lid back on but she slipped on a mud puddle. She fell, and the trashcan fell onto her._

_ She couldn't get back up._

_ It wasn't like she wasn't strong enough to push the trashcan away. She easily brushed it off. But she was weak and trembling and couldn't get up. She traces little circles in the mud, only adding to the dizziness that races through her mind. _

_ "This is okay," she says, half to herself, half to God. If there is one. Would God really sit by and let her starve like this. "This is okay. This is a decent place to die."_

_ In the cold rain, in the mud, and alone._

_ Can't get more decent than this._

_ She closes her eyes. She can't find the strength to open them again. _Was that it?_ She asks herself. _Was that the last time I am going to see the world?

_ "Look."_

_ She hears a voice. Was that real? Or was it upper forces talking to her, since she may already be dead? No, this voice was young and girlish._

_ That one voice, that one trace of life, motivates her to open her eyes. And standing in front of her, a couple meters away, was two children._

_ They looked to be about ten. One boy and one girl. They were both looking at her, their eyes round with compassion. They were both wearing trenchcoats and holding bags. The boy lights a cigarette and stares at her, his head slightly cocked._

_ The girl kneels down. She looks at Sam with sadness, understanding and... What? What's that other emotion in her eyes? Was Sam simply imagining it?_

_ The girl opens one of her bags and throws something at Sam's reach. It's something wrapped in white paper. And it smells great._

_ She opens it up, and realizes that it's food. A McDonalds cheeseburger, to be exact. Sam stares at the food, then stares at the two kids, then at the food, then at the kids, then at the food before her hunger gives it and she shoves it into her mouth. Within a matter of seconds everything is gone, and Sam is surprised she didn't inhale the paper wrapping as well. She looks up at the two kids who just saved her life._

_ The girl and boy just smile._

(Sam's POV)

Fighting Ultraviolet was an unfair fight. Sam has been fighting and putting near death blows on the young 24 year old woman for over ten years, just as Ultraviolet has done for her. They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses, and on the battlefield, they knew exactly what the other was going to do. So, as they tumbled around, flashing knives and pressure points, they fight might as well go on forever.

Ultraviolet fights with deception. She claims it's because it's the smartest way to fight. To trick your oppnent. But Sam knows why she fights this way. It's because all she's ever known is lies and deception. Her parents promised they'd come back. Her sister promised she'd help her. Everytime she bothered trusting anyone they just turned around and fucked her over.

So, Ultraviolet lets these emotions flood over her on the battlefield.

However, Sam (or Goldielocks) fights in two ways. With brute force, because that alone is enough to kill most. But when it comes to The Fatherhood, she fights with puzzles. Because that's all Sam ever knew. She actually uses body movement to singlify what she's about to do next. And while they're trying to figure out her strange movements, she's already at their neck with a knife, only taking one slit to end their life.

She doesn't know why she uses the movements. She can't stop making them: it's her impulse to do it. And Sam always acts on impulse.

But Sam knows Ultraviolet knows every one of her movements, so Ultraviolet knows her every move. But Sam knows her moves too.

Too even of a fight. Just too even.

Severa is watching the fight. Sam hated Severa probably more than she ever hated anyone. She's the leader of The Comeback, the clan they were in. She kind of looks like a snake. She has pointy features, sharp cheekbones, sharp lips, sharp creases in her face and around her eyes. Her dim purple hair that she constantly dyes is slick and greased back, not a single strand falling in her face or over her ears. And her eyes are the ice-blue, almost white. She is a snake. Everything about her is a snake.

She doesn't say a word for the whole exchange. Sam tries to keep her focus on the task at hand, the dark-haired girl she's supposed to be practice-fighting. But then, out of the corner of her eye, Sam sees Severa slightly shift to one side. Ultraviolet takes this one half-second that Sam is preoccupied and wins the fight, gripping Sam's head and placing the knife at her neck.

The two girls release and Severa just hisses in her venomous voice to Sam, "A true assassin isn't fazed by anything."

Sam just looks away. She shouldn't pick a fight today. Not after the events of today. She remembers Freddie with a pang and drops her gaze.

_He needs to know the truth._

Sam turns her head and sees Twinkletoes up ahead. The ones with the non-threatening names were the most scary, Sam knew that. That's why she's called Goldielocks. Twinkletoes was named for her lighter but deadly appearance. Oh, and how she could cut you right here, right now.

X-Rated steps up and stares at Sam straight on. He gives Sam a little half-smile that would have any girl melting under their skin. Sam, however, knows that this tactic is one of X-Rated's motives. He fights with deception, like Ultraviolet, but in a whole different way. He often uses his looks to decieve people, giving them a disarming smile a second before he kills them. Sam, however, has fought X-Rated just as many times as she fought Ultraviolet, and she knew his motives like she knew the back of her hand. At the same time when he uses deception, X-Rated also uses brute strength just as Sam does. Except he's physically stronger than Sam and could snap anyone's neck with his bare hands.

X-Rated always lunges first. And when he does, Sam ducks out of the way and grasps the back of his neck. She pulls on the tufty brownish hair and pulls him closer. She was about to train the knife on his neck before he flips her over, smacking her to the ground. Her bruises from yesterday are screaming, but she ignores him as she kicks her way out of X-Rated's grasp and faces him hand and hand again.

X-Rated tilts his head to one side and looks into Sam's eyes. His reddish-brown eyes look deep into Sam's icy blue ones. X-Rated does this in almost every battle. The enemy looks straight back, almost in confusion, and that half-second is just enough for X-Rated to turn the tide of the battle and send his oppnent to his death. But Sam already knows this, so she ignores him and jumps at him again.

They scramble together, hand and hand. Like Ultraviolet, the fight is too even. Whoever wins, it will be because of a lucky chance or a careless mistake. But when you're on the battlefield, a mistake is the worst thing you can possibly do.

But Sam decides to try something different. After she moves out of the way of X-Rated's knife, she tries something new. She looks into X-Rated's eyes just as he has done to Sam, to everyone he has fought, a million times. X-Rated stupidly stares back, realizing a half-second later what Sam is doing. Sam lunges at him and puts the knife on his neck.

She turns to Severa for approval.

But she had already walked away.

"Good game," X-Rated gasps, shoving Sam away.

"Not so bad yourself, except I tricked you with your own game." Sam says, a bit of pride at the end of her voice.

"Don't get so cocky, kid." Ultraviolet says, her deep purple eyes brimming with the faint light. "You know what confidence does to a person."

"Fucks them up, that's what." Sam answers. She brushes a strand of golden hair out of her face, but her hand touches the bruise on her cheek and she bites back a wince. Assassins don't admit pain.

"You okay?" Ultraviolet asks. "Those guys banged you up pretty badly."

Sam remembers with a pang the events of yesterday. Went out hunting Fatherhoods by herself. She killed three without even trying, but she barely got away alive after their homies went out for revenge.

"I'm fine," Sam scoffs. "And they banged _me_ up? They're dead now, thanks to me."

"Just don't go doing that again," X-Rated says, his voice low. "We work better as a team."

A team. The three of them. Sam blinks at the only two people left in the world who care about her. Who know who she really is. Everyone else thinks she's dead.

_Except him._

_ God damn it,_ she thinks to herself. She had shown herself to Freddie. The poor guy probably thought she was dead. And now he knows she's out there and is probably searching for her right now.

_It's always about me,_ Sam thinks bitterly. _Me, me, me, and me first._ She wanted them to forget her. And she fucked it up by revealing herself. _Why can't I just drop it? It's all taken care of._

"We were actually thinking of heading towards Valleyedge," Ultraviolet's voice breaks into her thoughts. "Starting up some shit. Show them that they don't try to cut any of us."

"They found Zigzag and Hummingbird," X-Rated says bitterly. "Both cut. Right in our own fucking territory. We gotta go and kill double that."

"But in their territory?" Sam echoes. She only fought the other guys yesterday because they were on her territory. Could we afford to just go over there and start killing? "Just the three of us? Can we handle it?"

"Goldielocks, they deserve it! We need to show them that they can't mess with us." X-Rated says. "We won't go far. You in or not?"

"Of course I'm in." Of course she's in. They were her friends. She couldn't let them go out alone. They were all she has left. Her family.

She nearly winces out loud at the word _family._

Family doesn't abandon family.

Sam follows them through their territory. The alleyways that make up most of their territory zigzag in confusing directions. Any Fatherhoods that come looking for trouble often get lost, and ultimately killed.

It wasn't always this way. The two gangs-ahem, _organizations_-had an unsteady peace for a while. Until bodies were found. Ultimately more and more kept dying. Now any Fatherhood seen is killed, just like the Fatherhoods kill any Comebacks.

Oh, what does it matter? The peace was back in 2010 and now it's 2015. It's surprising that not all of them are dead yet.

They started down the street. Fatherhood territory was more open but just as dangerous. Sam felt something brush her hand, and she turned to see X-Rated walking very close behind her. He gives her that look her gives people when he's out fighting, but she didn't have to worry about dying. But she did worry about something else.

If someone is in the Comeback, they must obey the rules. One of the most important rules was no romances with _anyone_ outside the organization. So X-Rated _really _came in handy when she needed him. But they never went any farther than that.

She really, really, really hoped X-Rated didn't try anything.

_Wait, wait, wait. Focus on the mission,_ Sam muses to herself. With the sun setting, they melted against the brick walls and slipped into an alleyway.

They didn't have to wait too long before they heard voices. Six or seven Fatherhoods were passing through. They traveled in packs, unlike Comebacks who rather kill alone, or in very small groups.

Sam tensed up. She remembered Zigzag and Hummingbird, and she was ready to kill them all.

She looked up ahead at Ultraviolet, who was pressed against the other wall. Her eyes were bulging and she looked panicked. Why? They've dealt with far worse than seven people. X-Rated looked perfectly calm.

Ultraviolet's heavy breaths were causing suspicion. The lead guy, the one who looked to be about twenty-five, stopped, causing the rest of the group to stop as well.

"Wait," The guy whispers. "Listen."

The three ceased breathing. Seconds go by, which turned into minutes. Sam's lungs were about to burst when the guy says, "Okay, let's keep going."

As soon as they were close enough, they leaped.

Sam slit the neck of one of the other guys before they even knew what was happening. She watched as the other two have down the exact same thing.

Now here comes the fun.

The other four that were left whipped out their knives and switchblades and lunged for them. Sam grasps one of the girls and slams her fist against her face. The girl recoils and bites down on Sam's hand. Sam lets go, only to scrabble back into the fight. Sam gasps for breath as the fight grew longer, more dangerous.

She glances behind her only to see the other two fighting just as hard. She saw X-Rated scrambling with two people. They were outnumbered.

Ultraviolet kills the person she was fighting, and grasps the other girl who was clinging to X-Rated. The lead guy fell back as X-Rated kicked him away, falling into a puddle of blood from the other dead that splashed over his blonde hair.

In that one second that Sam watched the others fighting, the girl she was tangled with got the upper hand. Before she could slice Sam's throat, X-Rated pulls her off of Sam and snaps her neck with his bare hands. Sam pulls the lead guy off the ground and puts the knife on his neck.

Ultraviolet, letting the dead she was holding slide to the ground, suddenly screams, _"Goldielocks! Don't!"_

Before Sam could kill him, he scrambles out of her grasp and runs off.

"Look what you did!" Sam hisses at Ultraviolet. "He got away!"

"I-I..." Ultraviolet's voice trails off.

"Come on, we'll deal with this later." X-Rated says roughly. "Let's get out of here before he gets others."

They move through the fast-dimming light. Before they can exit the territory, Sam sees a car driving up close. Her heart nearly stops.

It's Freddie's car.


	4. Chapter 4: Questions

_Flashback:_

_(Freddie's POV) May 11, 2012 8:24 P.M._

_ While Freddie is making disgusted faces at the tv screen, Sam is chuckling her head off._

_ "How are you finding this amusing?" Freddie says, his eyes wide. He looked at the blonde who's head was lying in his lap. "She's _dying_ as she's _giving birth_!"_

_ "So?" Sam says, looking up at him. Her golden curls were scattered all over his legs. "It's fake. And this movie really, really sucks."_

_ "You were the one who wanted to watch Breaking Dawn," Freddie scoffs. "We both knew it was going to be awful."_

_ "Carly said it was good though," Sam says, with an edge on her voice. "I thought there'd finally be more killing."_

_ "Yeah, right." Freddie snickers. "You know, you're a lot more girly then you let on." He goes on, with his voice high in a fake girl voice as he imitates Sam, "'My name's Princess Puckett and I love hot shirtless vampires!'"_

_ "Keep talking that way, I dare you." Sam snaps._

_ "I'll shut up." Freddie closes his mouth. "But really, why did you want to watch this?"_

_ "But I knew there was gonna be a birthscene in it," Sam says. "And those are always hysterical."_

_ "Hysterical?" Freddie echoes._

_ "How badly they attempt to reinact them." Sam explains. "I mean, that hardly looks real at all."_

_ "You've seen someone give birth?" Freddie asks._

_ "My mom's drunken friends. They randomly decide to get wasted on their due date. It's kind of funny, watch a few drunk chicks trying to handle that kind of situation." Sam says, laughing._

_ Oh Sam. Only she would find humor in that. Freddie just sighed and said, "Can we watch something else?"_

_ Sam blinked at him. "Like what?"_

_ "Something that doesn't have this...birth scene." he replies awkwardly._

_ Sam just snickers and begins flickering through the movie channels. "How about something scary?" Freddie suggests._

_ "Splice?" Sam asks when it comes up. "I never saw it, but it looked good."_

_ "But it's already half-way through," Freddie objects._

_ "Who cares?" Sam says. "Come on, it's supposed to be scary. It has to do with genetic tests on people or something like that."_

_ "Okay." Freddie says, and Sam clicks the channel. She leans back against Freddie and he wraps his arms around her waist._

_ It becomes clear about 25 minutes into the movie that this movie is not scary and mostly boring. When the Splice creature (Dren or something like that...) stabs the cat in the neck with her stinger, Sam laughs._

_ "You find that funny, too?" Freddie says, exasperated._

_ "Yeah, I mean, you didn't expect it." Sam says._

_ "You like unexpected endings?" Freddie asks her._

_ "Sometimes." She replies._

_ The movie goes on, and finally Sam says, "Wow. This movie really, really, really sucks."_

_ "It was kinda hard to swallow after the human/hairless creature thing sex scene," Freddie argees, pushing away the popcorn._

_ "Gimme that," she says, shoving a handful in her mouth._

_ "Come on, can we watch something else?" Freddie asks._

_ "Like?" Sam says with her mouth full._

_ "Something really, really scary." Freddie says._

_ "Okay, you pick." And now that Samantha Puckett has food in her possession, she is in her own little world. Freddie rolls his eyes and flips through the movie channels._

_ He gives Sam his famous smirk. "How about The Fourth Kind?" he asks, his voice low and dramatic._

_ "Not scary enough," she replies._

_ "Come on, I've seen part of this movie before. It's really, really scary." Freddie says._

_ "Ugh, fiiine." Sam groans. _

_ "Okay, fiiine." Freddie smirks, playing the movie._

_ Sam managed to stay calm and collected the whole time. Freddie knows she's seen some scary things in her life, but if this movie about aliens has got Freddie nearly shaking, surely it'll get Sam at least a little bit afraid._

_ But no, she kept a blank, bored expression the entire time. This was worse than when she watched Splice, where she was managing to find some humor._

_ "This isn't scary," she claims._

_ "I'm liking it," Freddie objects._

_ "Yeah, well..." Sam blinks at him. "Can you get me more popcorn." _

_ "Sure," he stands up and goes into her kitchen. As he's getting it, he notices something outside her window. He peers outside._

_ He couldn't make out anything in the darkness. He peers closer. Suddenly, he hears the five-note whistle he's been hearing constantly when he's with Sam._

_ And then she'll suddenly vanish._

_ He looks over his shoulder. For once, Sam did not hear the whistle, and her eyes were still fixed on the movie._

_ It's time for him to figure this out._

_ He slowly, quietly opens the backdoor._

_ "Freddie?" Sam calls, her voice lined with confusion._

_ Before Freddie could reply, two cold hands grasped his shirt and pull him outside. He barely has time to gasp in shock when one of the icy hands grabs his neck and presses down. Suddenly, everything was going-_

_ And he was engulfed in dizzying blackness._

_ He knows he was only out for a few minutes, because when he came to, Sam was at the backdoor, screaming her head off. "Freddie!" she shrieks over and over again. She searches in the darkness, looking for him. "Freddie! __**Freddie!**__"_

___"Sam!" he calls, surprised by how weak his voice sounds. Almost immediately, Sam scrambles her way towards the sound and bearhugs him, harder than ever before. And that is pretty hard, since it is Sam Puckett, the girl who knocked out a truck driver with only a carton of milk._

_ Sam presses her face to Freddie's, and Freddie feels how wet her face is with tears. "Sam," he coughs. "Sam, it's okay."_

_ Sam suddenly was feeling around his neck, as if she was looking for something. "Samantha, it's okay." He breathes. "Sam-" She grasped him tighter, if that was possible. She dragged him inside._

_ She sobbed into his shirt. Freddie has only seen Sam cry...two times? Maybe three? He doesn't know. All he knows is that this is the fourth, and it's incrediably sad._

_ "Sam..." he begins._

_ "I thought you were dead!" she whimpers. And Freddie realizes at that moment, she's never been so afraid. Not when she was about to fall off the building with Carly or when she nearly got pulzerized by a wood-shredder. No, this is the same amount fear when Freddie got hit by a car. Her eyes are blazing with terror and horror and every emotion no one should have to deal with._

_ And Freddie hated that anyone had to deal with that._

(Freddie's POV)

Was that Sam? He looked out his window. His headlights illuminated the three people who were walking on the street. All of them looked beaten and bloody. Then he realized that yes, that was Sam.

He screeched the breaks, stopping the car. He rolled down his window as Sam ran towards his car.

"Freddie!" she gasps. "Open the door! Quick!"'

"Wait! Goldielocks!" The dark-haired girl beside her says. Half her face was swelling up and she was holding her hand as if it was broken. "Do you know who this even is?"

"Oh," The guy with tufty brown-blonde hair says. There is a cut on his forehead and both his eyes were black and blue. "Goldielocks, this isn't...!"

"Shut your mouth and get in the car," Sam spits, her golden hair damp with blood. She has another bruise on her jaw and her lip was bleeding. Her shirt was torn, and Freddie could see a cut on the exposed skin.

Freddie could see headlights up ahead. Sam's eyes widened twice their normal size. "It could be the Fatherhoods," Sam gasps to the two other people, who look just as terrified.

Suddenly they all bundle into Freddie's car.

"Annnd now you're in my car." Freddie says, exasperated.

"Just drive!" Sam almost screams. "Hurry! They're catching up!"

"Who's catching up?" Freddie asks.

**"Just drive!"** All three people screamed at one time.

"Okay, okay!" He slams on the gas, hearing the sastifying sound of tires screeching. He looked in his rear-view mirror to see the two people in the back assessing their injuries, while Sam, who was in the passenger seat, was wiping away blood from her face.

"Sam, what happened?" He asks.

Her eyes widen at the word _Sam_, and she glances at the backseat to see if her friends heard. They don't look at her, as if pretending they didn't hear. She glances to see how far away the other car is.

"Did you hear me?" Freddie repeats, almost impatiently.

"Look, I appreaciate you saving our lives over there," Sam says, her teeth clenched. "But we kinda have another issue at the given moment."

Oh, yeah. He's supposed to be driving a getaway car. He grits his teeth and says, "What were you doing back there? Why are you all bloody?"

Sam glances behind her again, and the two people fixed their gazes on her. Questioning. Just like Freddie is. It looks like a lot of people have questions for Miss Puckett.

Freddie keeps driving, makes some difficult turns, and eventually they drive out to an open road. The girl in the back sighed, her long dark hair slick with blood. "We're in our territory," she whisper to the guy beside her. "They wouldn't dare follow us."

"Who wouldn't dare follow you? What is going on!" Freddie interrupted. The girl just fixed him with an icy gaze and didn't reply. "Why won't any of you tell me?"

"Look, can you just drop us off right here?" Sam asks, her voice rough. Freddie looks at her neck and sees that someone must have punched her there, and her vocal cords seemed choppy. "Please?"

Now anger was overcoming Freddie. The calm, collected Fredward Benson still has his moments with fury, but didn't everyone? He slammed on the breaks, probably giving them all whipblash.

The two in the back immediately got out of the car. When Sam opened the door, all Freddie is capable of saying is, "You're really going to do that?"

Sam pauses.

"You're really going to just walk out of this car?" He says. He doesn't look at her, and he doesn't sound angry. His eyes are focused on the road, and his voice is blank and monotone. "You're just going to walk away again?"

Sam glances at the two people who are waiting for her outside the car, then back at Freddie, then the two people, then back at Freddie.

"Just go then," Freddie says calmly. "Just walk away again. You clearly can't face this situation. So just go."

Seconds go by. Then maybe a full minute. Finally, Sam just shuts the door. The two adults sprint off and Freddie begins driving again.

Freddie's always been one with words. He always could confront people using words, quotes, even poems. But no matter what, when it came to Sam, he was always at a loss for words. So for minutes they drove around on amonyous streets in complete silence, trying to find words to say.

Finally, Sam says, "Well? What do you want to know?"

Freddie glances at her. "What do you think?"

Sam rolls her eyes. "You've always been like this," she growls. "Always needing to know the truth. Well, think about it, Benson. How great can the truth really be in this situation!"

"I don't know!" Freddie shouts, making Sam jump. He then realizes that she is still bleeding pretty badly. "Look, you're bleeding everywhere. I'm gonna take you to my place so I can stop it."

"Why?" she asks distantly. He knows why she's asking this. Why bother helping her when all she's done is screwed him over.

"Because that's what friends do." He replies tightly, gripping the wheel of his car. That's also what bfs and gfs do. What lovers do.

Sam is silent. They pull up to his apartment and they walk inside. They go up the elevator and Freddie opens the door to his room with a key. They step inside.

Sam looks shaky, as if this was the first time she's been in a apartment since their iCarly days. "You own this place?" she asks.

"Yep." Freddie says.

"You live alone?" she says in her husky voice. There's an edge on her voice as well...is that what Freddie thinks it is.

"Of course. Now get to the bathroom." Sam nods and Freddie leads her to the bathroom, and instructs her to sit at the edge of the bathtub. He begins to clean her face and shoulder off, wiping away the blood. She keeps her eyes focused on the tile floor in the bathroom, never looking up at him. Freddie notices old scars on her, some of them looking bad and some not even healed yet.

"Don't you take care of yourself?" Freddie grunts as he rips a bandage of the roll with his teeth.

"As if there's a whole list of people who are looking out for me," Sam says, gritting her teeth.

"Well, when someone does look out for you, all you do is leave them." Freddie says as he puts the bandage on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Sam scoffs. "That's _exactly_ what happened."

"Well, it's not like you ever give me any insight." Freddie responds, placing another bandage over her wrist.

"The truth will only make you hate me more." Sam says softly.

"I don't hate you." Both him and Sam lift their faces up at the same time, and Freddie realizes that their lips are only a few inches away.

Sam turns her head away. "I don't see why you don't," she says weakly. "All I've ever done was kept running." She blinks a few times, looking tired.

"Careful, you lost a lot of blood." Freddie says, hurrying to his fridge. He comes back with an apple juicebox and a twinkie. "Eat this; it'll help."

Sam obeys, her eyes fixed on the floor. "Now, one second, I have to check your blood pressure." Freddie goes to his cabinet to get the thing his mother always used on him. He's not sure if Sam even needs her blood pressure checked, but it seems like something his mom would try on him. A few minutes later, he comes back into the bathroom.

Sam is asleep in the bathtub, her blonde curls falling over her eyes.

And he realizes that might be the most comfortable place she's slept in a long time.

_Flashback:_

_(Ultraviolet's POV) May 11, 2009. 1:56 P.M._

_Lies._

_ That's all Ultraviolet ever knew. Well, that and death. But death is the more appealing one out of the two, since it's just over after that._

_ Lies live on, which only lead to more lies. More lies. Then it becomes a whole mess. Ultraviolet knew that better than anyone. But surely it can't get any worse than your parents leaving you, your sister abandoning you, and your only family being a just-as-challenged guy and a girl they rescued?_

_ It does._

_ Especially because of what Ultraviolet is doing now. She waits in the open, with a knife in hand, waiting for him to come._

_ He won't come._

_ More lies. This time to herself. If only he knew how much she prayed he wouldn't show up. How much she wished he would change his mind and forget her. But he never, ever does. He always comes._

_ She wishes he doesn't._

_ She wishes she didn't._

_ But they always meet up._

_ The breathless blonde guy runs up to her. Before she could react, he presses his lips against hers. She slams her palms against his chest._

_ "What was that for?" he asks, crestfallen._

_ "We can't do this anymore," Ultraviolet says, her voice sounding rushed._

_ "You say that every time," the boy said roughly._

_ Ultraviolet looked at his red wristband. The unspoken message between each Fatherhood. All of them wear some kind of red clothing. She begins to speak again, "You know what they'd do to us if we got caught?"_

_ "We'd die," the boy laughed. Ultraviolet understood the amusement. When you've been in a gang for years and years and years, and have seen countless death for no good reason, it suddenly becomes a laughing matter._

_ He gently presses her against the brick wall, and his lips go to her neck. She freezes at the soft touch. So wrong. So forbidden. She hated it just as much as the impulse to keep coming back._

_ "C'mon," he grumbles. "Open up."_

_ Ultraviolet was silent._

_ "Is it because of that guy that keeps following you?" he demands. "That X whatever?"_

_ "No!" Ultraviolet says stiffly. "Leave him alone."_

_ "Every time he nearly catches us, you're not up for anything."_

_ Ultraviolet turns away. "It's complicated."_

_ "Do you have something going on with him?" he asks. "Or, at least used to?"_

_ "No." she replies. "I've known him all my life. He's practically my brother." But that was a lie. These three emotions have been tearing at Ultraviolet for months now: Love for someone forbidden, love for someone who'd never return it, and the will to live._

_ "Look, Cashmere, I-" Ultraviolet was cut off my the five-note whistle. The Comeback's secret call for communication. They were near._

_ "Quick! Hide!"_

_ "Why?" Cashmere asks, his blue eyes wide. "But-"_

_ "__**Get down!**__" Ultraviolet slams her palms against his chest, and he immediately dashes out of sight, his blonde hair disappearing in the dark. She lets out her own whistle to let them know souls were here, and within seconds two bodies ran towards her._

_ "Ultraviolet!" That was X-Rated's voice. The second pair of footsteps were soft and weightless, so she guessed either Twinkletoes or Hummingbird was with him. Then another set of footsteps. Goldielocks._

_ "I'm here!" she called back, softly._

_ "Where the hell have you been?" he hisses at her. X-Rated's eyes are blazing with fury and... What? What else is there? "We thought you were dead!"_

_ "And that's not such an outragerous thought," Ultraviolet says bitterly._

_ "Do you not get it?" Hummingbird snaps. She's so tiny, only standing 4'8". "You had me and X-Rated and Goldielocks petrified. Why are you wandering on the edge of our territory?"_

_ "Are you waiting for someone?" Goldielocks asks. She's only fifteen years old, but she's just as deadly as any of them. _

_ "No," Ultraviolet says stiffly. "Come on, let's just get out of here."_

_ "This isn't over," X-Rated threatens. Ultraviolet just ignores him. She knew they were closer than close, that they loved each other because they were the only family they had. But in any other way... She remembers Cashmere's ice-blue eyes._

_ "Look, I was thinking of going on a killing spree," Ultraviolet says, her voice low. "Still furious about finding Copper dead. I know it was them, X-Rated. I just knew it."_

_ "Okay..." X-Rated looks doubtful. "But, you shouldn't go alone. Not without us." He gestures towards himself and Goldielocks. Goldielocks nods, making her innocent little curls bounce. If only they knew a few seconds ahead of time that she would drop them without a blink._

_ As they make their way back to their reststop, Ultraviolet knew he didn't believe her. Goldielocks and Hummingbird may believe her, but there's no convincing X-Rated._

_ If only he knew._

(Sam's POV)

Sam attempted to open her eyes, but the massive headrush that hit her made me fall back against the cool, clean surface. There was a bright light around her, and whatever she was propped against was smooth and cold. Her head was pounding, worse than any hangover she ever endured. Her whole body aches, especially on her neck, and she can taste blood in her mouth.

_Wait. Think like a player,_ Sam says to herself. Here's a new puzzle, just for her. She's in a dizzying mess that is burning and aching and she feels as if she's going to break any second. The answer to this puzzle: she's not home. That's all that matters. Her home is sleeping in an abandoned alleyway, on the ground, snuggled next to Ultraviolet and X-Rated. And she is not there at the moment.

She attempts to jump up, but her body is screaming and she falls back down, barely stopping a wince. The light's too bright so she doesn't open her eyes; she's stuck in a blinding, painful world. She's been in far more dangerous situations than this. After all, how many other people can survive fifteen stories underwater without air? Somehow, she did. But that's a different story for another time. She must rely on her other senses at the moment.

Hearing: She thinks she can hear the faint sound of a tv.

Taste: Blood

Smell: Blood

Touch: cold, smooth, curved base of some sort

She's lost on this one.

She attempts to stand up again, her feet pushing up, but she slips and falls back down. She can't stop the whimper that escapes her mouth. She suddenly hears footsteps approaching her.

"You're up."

Then all the memories of what happened last night rushed into her mind. And she thought that was a dream.

"How are you feeling?" Freddie's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You've never looked better."

But two can play at this game. "Never felt better either, Benson."

She hears Freddie move closer to her. He knelts down, and she's still trying to figure out where she is.

"You ready to talk?" he asks calmly.

"Yes, I'm _truly _up for talking." she replies, her voice just as smooth.

She felt Freddie touch her cheek with his hand, brushing a curl out of her face, the thin hair stiff with blood. "That's okay, I can wait." He says, his voice icy. "I've been waiting for about three years now."

"Oh, that's good. That means you can wait a bit more." Sam finally opens her eyes. She looks around and sees that she's in his bathroom, and that she's in his bathtub. He's sitting beside the bathtub, looking down at her.

He lets out a frustrated sigh and he stands up. "You aren't leaving until you give me at least _some_ information." He growls. "I don't care if you kill me right here, right now-and I'm sure you can. You're not leaving without giving me an answer."

He begins to walk away.

She suddenly says, "Freddie, what happened? Where am I?"

She can sense in his slighter breathing that he's confused, probably not knowing that she forgot what happened. So he says, "You and some other people were out, and I drove by. And you needed help. So I dropped them off, but you stayed... And now we're here."

Sam couldn't believe she had stayed, but in a way, she was glad she did. She falls slightly back. "Okay." she says.

"Okay?" he says.

"Okay." she says.

"Okay?" he says.

"Okay." she says.

"Okay." he says.

He walks away, and Sam sits in there, thinking. He can't know what happened. What happened was probably ten times worse than he thought. How much does he know already? She sits in there, waiting for him to come back.

But he doesn't.

She wonders if he's trying to make her go through what he felt, the betrayal and anger and grief at her disappearance. But what he doesn't know is that he got the better end of the deal. How he was the one who suffered the least.

She wait as long as he wants to.

So long passes. Maybe an hour. Maybe two. She senses it's in the middle of the night. Ultraviolet and X-Rated must be freaking out. But they knew she could get away from Freddie if she needed to. But she wouldn't escape. Not now.

"So, how's it coming along?" he finally says. He came back; she opens her eyes and sees him walk in.

"You ready to talk or not?" she snaps.

"Sure, let's here it." he smiles.

"First of all, I need to ask you something-" she begins but is cut off by Freddie's annoyed voice.

"No. No questions. Just tell me what happened."

"No. You tell me first."

"No. You."

"Freddie, shut your mouth or I'm not talking."

He's silent.

Then he says, "Fine. What do you need to ask?"

"What do you know already?" Sam asks.

"Well, it's funny you mentioned that." Sam bites back a wince as Freddie leans in, only a few inches away. She knows they're not in for a warm welcome. He has the same snarky look he had when he told the world he loved her at Trouble Waters. "You know, you've always been mysterious, but this is new even for _you. _I wake up one morning, and everything is normal, except _you_ show up at Bushwell Plaza. That was frightening but _great_, since I thought I'd learn where _you_ went. And then, when I get to work, I find out through _high FBI tracking and high-censoring cameras,_ that _you,_ Samantha Puckett, are part of this organization that murders innocent people." He sits back, looking sastified with himself. "You can start there."

"Heh...well..." Sam snickers half to herself and Freddie narrows his eyes. "Apparently you know a lot less than I thought you did."

"Well, now it's your job to fill me in." Freddie says.

They're just going back and forth with the insults, aren't they?

"Well, Freddie..." she begins slowly. "You're probably feeling pretty-"

"Broken? Angry? Furious? Sad?" Freddie spits out.

"You want answers but you keep interrupting me." Sam says calmly.

"Fine. Speak." He growls.

"I...I left because of the organization," she says, her voice shaky. "Well, that's part of it. I didn't want to leave."

"Why did you leave _that_ day though?" Freddie asks, the sarcasm gone, now his voice layered with confusion. "I mean, they had pictures of you in that organization from even before we started iCarly."

"There's this rule," Sam says roughly. "Th-That we're not supposed to be with anyone-you know, like, _that _way-outside of the Clan. The organization, I mean."

"You could've told me," Freddie says, his voice wearing down. "We could've sorted something out. If this organization is dangerous, I could've gotten you out of it."

"They've been my life since I was seven." Sam snaps. "They saved my life."

"Sam, will you look at yourself?" he grasps a mirror and shoves it in her hands. "Look. This isn't the Sam you left behind."

Sam looks at herself in the reflective surface. Her face was bruised, there was dried blood in the corner of her mouth, and her hair was stained red with blood. No, this wasn't the eighteen year old Sam Freddie had last saw. This is the twenty year old Sam that made too many mistakes. The Sam that betrayed her family. The Sam that Freddie should just forget about.

"Wait, Freddie." Sam says. She realizes that in order to get Freddie to forget about her, he must know the real truth. The reasons why she left. Then he'll get so mad that he'd want nothing to do with her, and then she'd get away.

It doesn't matter how she feels because she has no say anymore.

"Freddie, there's more to the story." she says. Freddie looks at her, his eyebrows arched. "I-"

Sam heard a thump. She looks up and sees Freddie turn around.

"What-!" Freddie began.

Suddenly, two people swarmed into the bathroom. Freddie barely has time to say something before X-Rated grasps his neck and lifts him upward. Ultraviolet looks down at her.

"Sam, what happened-" she begins.

Sam's eyes are focused on X-Rated, who has Freddie imprisoned in his arms. Freddie's mouth is opened in a silent wail, because X-Rated has his vocal cords cut off. Sam sees the knife in X-Rated's hand. And the fear in Freddie's eyes. X-Rated lifts his weapon to Freddie's throat.

And is about to end his life.


	5. Chapter 5: Caught!

_Flashback:_

_(Sam's POV) April 7th, 2001 4:57 P.M._

_ Sam finds herself climbing over scraps of broken glass as she follows the two children. _No,_ she thinks._ You aren't leaving me this time._ Her mother left on one of her little "adventures". Ever since she met Ultraviolet and X-Rated, they took her under their wing. Feeding her when she starved, helping her out when she needed it. But they'd dissappear just as quick. This time, they aren't getting away from her. Not this fast._

_ She tried to follow them once before, but she got lost. This time, she's sure she remembered the pathway through the alleyway. First right. Then left. Then sideways. Then left again? No, it was right. She made that mistake last time. Then left again. She finds a dark staircase that seems to lead no where._

_ "Hello?" she calls, her voice young and bright. "Hello?"_

_ Within seconds the two kids were bolting up the stairs. Her mouth opens up in delight, but then Ultraviolet slams her hand over her mouth and pushes her away. Then X-Rated grasps her legs and drags her aside._

_ "Why did you follow us!" X-Rated hisses, his voice a whisper._

_ "Do you know what'll happen to you if they find you!" Ultraviolet adds._

_ "You guys can't leave me there!" Sam wails. They make hand motions to get her to quiet down and she obeys, and finishes her outburst quietly. "I can't take it anymore. You guys seem so better off by yourselves. Can't I run away with you guys?" she looks up at them._

_ The two kids looked down at her with their dark eyes and begin to whisper among themselves._

_ "Well, we joined the Comeback when we were six," Ultraviolet argues._

_ "How we lived was a blessing. She'll never make it." X-Rated snaps._

_ "She's right. We can't leave her there." Ultraviolet says._

_ "But her mom still does come around sometimes," X-Rated mutters. "She'll file missing child reports and everything. Then we'd be screwed."_

_ "She can live half a life. Half here, half over there. That's what we did for the first few years." Ultraviolet says with a shrug._

_ "I'd hate myself if anyone touched her, though." X-Rated's voice trails off._

_ "She's got spirit and she's got spunk. Severa wants to keep the interesting people around. She'll admire her potiental." Ultraviolet pulls away from X-Rated and says, "Well, good news, kid. Stick with us and don't strike out, and you're part of us. Just one thing. You'll never breathe a word of this to anyone, correct?"_

_ "Can I tell my friend, Carly?" Sam asks innocently._

_ "No." Ultraviolet's voice was serious. "Or your mother. Or your teachers. No one can know. Comprende?"_

_ "Comprende?"_

_ "Understand?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "Okay," Ultraviolet whispered. "First rule: no one can _ever_ know your name. Never, ever say it out-loud. We'll give you a fake name, so if anyone asks, you say your fake name. Okay?"_

_ "Okay. Is that why you guys have weird names?" Sam asks._

_ "Um, yeah." X-Rated glares at Ultraviolet, and they exchange a look._

_ "So what are you gonna call me?" Sam looks up at them with wide blue eyes._

_ "Hmm..." Ultraviolet gently tucks a loose strand of golden hair out of Sam's face. She secretly loves when people do that. _

_ "We'll call you Goldielocks." She says._

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie didn't know what hit him. He barely had time to turn around before someone gripped him from behind and put him in a headlock. His legs dangled above the ground helplessly. A dark-haired girl suddenly comes into eyeview, and he realizes the situation. He attempts to breathe, but the guy grasping him was cutting off his windpipe.

He realizes that these two people were the people from before. They looked just as scarred and pained as Sam does. Sam stands straight up, staring at horror at Freddie, then screaming, _"X-Rated! Put him down!"_

Freddie felt his eyeballs bulging out. He painfully glances sideways and sees a knife very close to his neck. _Never a good sign,_ Freddie thinks numbly. He can't breathe, he can't breathe, he can't breathe.

"Goldielocks, what happened?" Ultraviolet asks. "Is this guy keeping you trapped here?"

"Let him go!" Sam screeches. _"Let him go! __**Now!**__"_

Freddie is about to blackout when finally the grasp opens, and he falls to the ground. Sam immediately rushes to his side and Freddie attempts to sit up.

"Freddie! Are you okay?" Sam gasps. Freddie just looks up at the two people who were looking down at him.

"Goldielocks, we can deal with this later." The guy with russet hair says roughly. "Something came up."

"Like what?" Sam asks, not letting go of Freddie.

"Come on!" The girl hisses. "We need to go!" Before Freddie was aware of what was happening, the guy and the girl pull Sam up and begin to drag her out.

"Freddie! I'll be back," Sam coughs out.

"I'll be on the ground," he calls back weakly.

The door shuts and Freddie is left alone. He forces himself to his feet, and looks around him. Things are tipped over. His bathtub is stained with blood. Muddy footprints are everywhere.

_Where were they taking Sam?_Hhe thinks bitterly. He was about to find out everything and they took her away. Now he's terrified of her location, and within seconds he was starting for the door.

_Wait. Think._ Freddie stops. _Where do you expect to go?_ He doesn't have any idea where they took her. He looks at the clock and sees that it's three in the morning.

Sam trusted those people. More than anyone, perhaps. They clearly know more than he does. He sits on his couch, calling numbers. And numbers. And numbers.

Within seconds he's asleep.

_Flashback:_

_(X-Rated's POV) May 11, 2009. 2:13 P.M._

_ He should be mad. But X-Rated is a well-proportioned man of well-proportions. He starts small and basic and builds from there. He forces himself to swallow some pretzels. Okay. Hunger's done with. He builds up from there. Now he's in a car and is driving. Shelter from the rain. Okay, he's done with shelter. Now a sense of belonging. He's with his two favorite people at the moment after Hummingbird went her seperate ways. Now for esteem._

_ "So, tell me where you were." He says to Ultraviolet._

_ "I told you already," she growls back._

_ "Is there something you're hiding?" he asks calmly._

_ "No!" she practically shouts. "No. X-Rated, why won't you believe me?"_

_ "Because it seems shady, that's all." X-Rated grips the steering wheel._

_ "Shady, huh." Ultraviolet keeps her eyes fixed on the road. "That's it."_

_ Goldielocks looks uneasy in the backseat. "So..."_

_ X-Rated felt himself in a haze. He glances sideways at the little warrior sitting beside him. Ultraviolet has been his family since he could toddle. They told each other everything. He was the only one who knew her real name, just as she knew his._

_ But something else is stirring underneath X-Rated's skin as he looks at the irritated young woman. Something that tingles yet leaves him feeling weak and warm._

_ What does an eighteen year old know about love? He was just classified as an adult four months ago but he's been living as an adult since he was five. He's had short romances with other Comebacks because they were the only people someone in the Comeback could. He remembers Wavelength and Snowcaps and Ragequit, but all in all, those girls were not the one. Things were different with him and Ultraviolet. But how can he feel that way for someone who was basically his sister?_

_ "Please tell me," he says._

_ "Just drop it," she growls, her voice controlled and filled with rows of teeth._

_ "You know, you say you hate lies." X-Rated snaps. "But now you're lying yourself."_

_ Ultraviolet turns on him, her icy eyes blazing purple-blue. "Just leave me alone!"_

_ "Hey, can you drop me off right here?" Goldielocks interrupts awkwardly. "I just remembered, um, my friends want to rehearse for iCarly and-"_

_ "I mean, I thought we told each other everything." X-Rated goes on._

_ "We do," Ultraviolet says, her voice cracking a bit._

_ "Okay, that's just fine." X-Rated says calmly, pressing against his seat. "Maybe Wavelength will want to hear about it?" _

_ "What does Wavelength have to do with any of this?" Ultraviolet demands._

_ "Seriously, guys, I'm almost always late as it is-" Goldielocks breaks in._

_ "Oh, nothing. Just nothing." X-Rated half-teases. "She's just a friend, like we agreed on." The left side of his mouth lifts in a smirk. He has Ultraviolet right where he wants her. "A very, _very_ good friend."_

_ "What the hell is this about?" Ultraviolet snaps. "What are you doing?"_

_ Seeing Ultraviolet's cheeks flare up was so, so sastifying. He didn't want to make Ultraviolet jealous, but that's all he does. Manipulation. She looks furious and hurt. This lights off a neon sign in X-Rated's head, a pale blue star glimmering in the dark that says: _Maybe she feels the same way.

_"You... You just leave me alone." Ultraviolet says warily. X-Rated glances sideways at her. He knows her better than he knows himself. He thinks of her true name, then thinks to himself: _Does it matter?_ He hardly remembers his own name. He thinks of himself as "X-Rated" more than he does his own name. What was his own name? Oh, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter._

_ He glances at Ultraviolet, and he feels that nagging, aching pain deep inside himself. What is that?_

_ He glances at Goldielocks in the backseat, who looks back with a piercing blue gaze._

_ Maybe she knows._

_ And maybe she's seen this before._

(Sam's POV)

"Stop it!" She screeches, kicking her legs back and forth as they lead her away. "You guys ruined everything!"

"Goldielocks! We have a situation!" X-Rated snaps at her.

"What could be _so important_ that you had to drag me away from there?" Sam spat. "I almost told him!"

"First of all, all of that is confidental." Ultraviolet growls. "And there is a really big issue going on."

"What?" Sam asks.

"When we went back to the meeting place..." X-Rated begins.

"Police shut the place down." Ultraviolet finishes.

Sam felt dizzy. Numb. "What?" she echoes.

"Don't you get it?" Ultraviolet hisses. "The cops finally found the meeting place. They arrested everyone present. And now they're searching for everyone else."

"Why didn't they just kill the cops who found them?" Sam cries out. Suddenly, everything that once made sense is buckling down on her. Everyone found would be sentenced to death for all of the murders. Now, they had no where to go.

"The police had _guns_." X-Rated says. "Not even an assassin who's found can fight guns."

"Who told you guys?" Sam presses.

"Snowcaps was running away from the place. Gasping for air. We don't know where everyone else is," Ultraviolet mutters. "But quite a few got away."

"Severa?" Sam asks. Part of her hopes she was captured. Everyone would fight harder to save her. But Sam knows that Severa would be the first on death row. And that's not such a bad idea.

"No one's seen her," X-Rated says.

_Bummer,_ Sam thinks.

"Now where do we go?" Sam asks, feeling empty. No where was safe.

"We could sleep in the car..." X-Rated's voice trails off.

"Or under the highway..." Ultraviolet adds.

Sam just turns away. "Come on," X-Rated says rustily. "We need to clear out before they find us."

As the three young adults wove through the streets, constantly looking behind their backs, Sam thinks again about how it's been the three of them. Always. Just like how she was with Carly and Freddie, and it was the three of them. But that had been different. Those two were her closest friends. X-Rated and Ultraviolet...they were her family. They helped her out when she needed them most.

"Hold on," Ultraviolet whispered as they crossed the street and met in that sliver of grass and bushes so no one could see them. "You two stay here. I'm going to scout ahead." The smaller-built girl scrambled through the street, looking light and breathless on her feet.

Sam looks up at the sky. Still completely dark. It has to be around four or five o'clock in the morning. She then realizes the situation at hand.

Sam and X-Rated were alone now. Sam glances sideways at X-Rated, who was looking back at her.

"So?" he asks expectingly. "How did it go?"

"What do you mean?" she asks warily.

"I know that was the guy. You know, the one who-"

"Yeah, it was him." Sam interrupts him. "And before anything truly interesting happened, you guys showed up."

"Sorry bout' that." he says easily. "We can do that sometimes."

"Don't give yourself more credit than you deserve." Sam snaps back, but her lips curl in a grin.

"You know, we orginally weren't going to come back for you." X-Rated says. "You were going to come back; we knew that. We figured it would be good for you to sort that shit out. You never really were the same since." He looks down. "But then this police deal came up, and we figured since he was in the FBI-"

"That he was in on it?" Sam finishes. Now that it was said aloud, it made sense. She remembered how Freddie was keeping her there. Surely he wasn't waiting for the cops to show to arrest her...? He knew she'd be put in prison, if not, death.

Betrayal floods over her, and she feels bitter and weak. But she deserved it. All of it. She broke Freddie's heart. She still loved him, probably more than he'd ever know, but she deserved every second of this punishment.

_Oh well,_ she thinks bitterly. _Oh fucking well. _She feels her eyes haze up with tears. She flutters her eyes, trying to make them go away.

"Are you okay?" X-Rated asks, leaning close to her face. "Are you crying?"

Sam doesn't reply.

"It's okay to be upset." He says, his warm breath hitting her face in the freezing air. "I've had my fair share of heartbreak, babe. Trust me."

The two clustered together. "It's just," Sam says softly. "You know what I did. You two are the only ones who know. I did it for him, not for me. I couldn't let Severa touch him."

"Ah, Severa." He says, his voice almost a chuckle. He was less than a few inches away. "She's terrifying, isn't she?"

"Pfft." Sam says. "She doesn't scare me. She never bothers to practice fight me. Ever."

"It's hard not to be scared of her, Sam." he says seriously. "You were scared she was gonna cut him."

"Yeah, well..." She looks up and sees that he's not even an inch away.

He gently tilts his head, and their lips are a centimeter from touching.

"Yeah, well..." He says. "Yeah. Just...whoever this Freddie guy is..."

His voice drops.

"He's very lucky." he finishes.

Before anything can happen, suddenly the bushes rustle and Ultraviolet pops her head out.

"Come on," she gasps. "We have to split _now._"

"What happened?" X-Rated demands.

"Just saw Evergreen and Diez," she says in ragged breaths. "Both were being chased by the cops. They got caught. Not sure if they saw me. Come on, we have to **go**!"

Sam and X-Rated scrabbled upward, their shoes catching in the dirt, and they ran after Ultraviolet. As Sam ran, she couldn't help but wonder about X-Rated. He was a great guy, she knew that, but she always thought it would be him and Ultraviolet together. They always seemed so in sync. And there was that whole fiasco years ago...

Oh, what does she know?

Sam needs to get her own relationships in order before she begins meddling with others.

_Flashback:_

_(Sam's POV) June 12th, 2001 3:20 A.M._

_ Sam lost the light a long time ago about what is shameful or not. As a young girl, she would try to impress people. But she honestly doesn't care what people think of her. Ever. She is a bully, she's harsh and cruel, she's broken so many other people's bones._

_ But this a new low for her._

_ "Fatherhoods have been killing our members in the dark for ages." X-Rated whispers in her ear. "Yes, we're all assassins here, and all we do is kill with cheap shots. But we caught them in the act. Now it's our turn. Do it."_

_ Sam silently slides through the crack in the wall, stepping soundlessly just as her two friends taught her to. She spots the man crouching beside the trashcan, lighting a cigarette. She remembers the image of this man standing over the dead body of Trinket, and she feels fury ignite inside of her._

He deserves it,_ she thinks to herself. _He killed Trinket. He didn't have to die.

_ Sam soundlessly steps toward him. The word __**shame**__ appears in her head again. What are the reasons you should be shameful for? When Sam was sleeping beside a garbage pail, starving to death and lying in the mud, should she feel shameful? When she has been training to __**kill**__ at the age of eight, should she feel shameful? Who is to say when you should feel shameful?_

_ Sam slides behind the man. He suddenly pauses._

_ "Who's th-" He begins to say, but Sam cuts him off, and puts the knife at his neck. She slits his throat before he can react. As he falls to the floor, Sam looks down at the person who killed a friend of hers and thinks._

_ Shameful. Shameful. Shameful. She finally thinks she knows the meaning of that word._

_ It's pretty shameful to be killed by an eight year old._

_ "Good."_

_ Sam jumps at the sound of an icy voice. It's too dark to see, so she doesn't know where it's coming from. The only light is the still-light cigarette that feel to the ground._

_ "There's millions and millions ways to die, but being struck down by a child is a pretty pathetic one, wouldn't you agree?"_

_ The voice is cold and hyponotic, playing with Sam's head like ribbons of blue fire. It slowly approaches her, dancing in the damp air, teasing her mind._

_ She felt a hand on her shoulder; she jumps and turns around. She looks up and makes out X-Rated's face in the darkness._

_ "It's okay," he murmurs. "This is Severa."_

_ "Severa?" she echoes._

_ She can barely make out the shadow of someone standing in front of her. She's very tall, and she looks down at Sam with cold eyes. "This is your first kill, no?"_

_ "Yeah, it is." Sam replies, keeping her voice tight and controlled. She's heard of Severa. X-Rated and Ultraviolet already taught her how to act around Severa. Not fearful; __**especially**__ not fearful. Not thrilled or admiring, she apparently hates that as well. Just act indifferent. Uncaring. Bored. She just killed someone and now she's faced with someone who controls the clan of assassions. And she's supposed to act indifferent?_

_ "Well done. Ultraviolet said you were something special. You killed that man without a blink." Severa leans into her face, and Sam forces herself to stare back._

_ "Of course, this sad soul isn't the real challenge. I hope you know that, right sweetheart?" Severa says softly._

_ "Oh?" Sam says calmly. "I'm sorry for his loss, then."_

_ "He's simply practice," Sam can make out Severa's shrugging. "The real kills are the ones who put up a fight."_

_ "But many put up a fight," X-Rated interrupted. "This was just a cheap shot. Goldielocks did fine."_

_ "She did excellent." Severa agrees. She gently leans down until she's less than an inch away from Sam's face. "Just remember, little warrior." she says softly. "The real challenges are the people who you don't want to kill." she stands up swiftly and begins to walk away._

_ And she was gone, just like that._

(Freddie's POV)

When Freddie finally woke up, it was 6:30 a.m. He rose up quickly and remembers work. He stands up and swiftly gets ready.

Once he's in his car, he figures out his gameplan. Right after work, he'll go searching for Sam. And once he finds her, he'll figure out more about this.

But then what?

What will he do after he finds out the truth? If the truth is awful and corrupted, would Sam kill him after she told? Or would she simply disappear again if the truth wasn't so bad? Or would the truth be not as bad as he imagined? Not as bad as Sam thought. They could work out a solution.

But if that _does_ happen, then what?

Would they get back together? Would they go back to where they were or simply restart again? Would they ever get over the long 3 years of silence and pain and sadness? Freddie shut his eyes tight, remembering how he felt. He would _love_ to go back to the way things were. But would Sam even want to? Would it ever be the same again?

He pulls up to the impressive building to see that everything is flipped around. Police are flooding the parking lot. He gets out of his car and is greeted by his friend, Lindsay.

"What's going on?" He asked Lindsay breathlessly.

"Didn't you hear?" Lindsay replied, her hazel eyes wide. "We _finally_ found the underground meeting place of one of the top ten most wanted gangs!"

Freddie's stomach dropped. He had a good idea of which one it is, but he had to be sure. "Which one...?" his voice trailed off.

"They are called the Comebacks."

Oh. He was right. Well, years at M.I.T. really paid off, huh?

"All work in the tech department is closed today," Lindsay went on. "So most of us are going to head down to the FBI prison, to see if we can help out at all."

"May I come with?" Freddie asks.

"Of course. Here, I'll give you a ride." She flashed him a bright white smile and grabbed his hand and pulled him to her car.

Lindsay was the secretary for the Tech department at the FBI. Twenty two and extremely successful, she is one of the friendliest people Freddie has ever met. But, he can't help but notice that she may like him a bit more than a friend. If Freddie was open, he probably would have jumped for joy at the idea of a pretty girl taking interest in him. But with this whole fiasco with Sam, he hardly took notice.

As she drove, Lindsay gave Freddie a concerned glance. "Have you been sleeping alright?" she asks softly. "You look as if you haven't slept a wink."

"Rough night," he replies quickly. Well, it was the truth.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says. She gives her head a little shake, her smooth, straight strawberry blonde hair scattered over her shoulders. "I had this insane thing I had to finish last night, you wouldn't believe it! So it was twelve at night, and I was trying to fix my desk, and then..."

Freddie blocked out her voice as he remembered that Sam almost never talked for hours and hours. She would often just stuff her face with ham and then fall asleep on his lap. Which, in all honesty, was not so bad. When he thought about it, her lips always did taste so delicious and she was always so well rested when they wanted to do...stuff.

_Why don't you just stop this, Freddie?_ A small voice asks. Freddie isn't schitzophrentic, and he figures it's just his coincience. Face it. Sam has moved on and probably wants nothing to do with him. He must learn the truth-and he will-but that will probably as far as they'll ever be again.

And that's a sad thought.

They arrive at the prison, and Freddie walks in with Lindsay.

"Are you authorized to be here?" a guard asks.

` Freddie shows him his card.

"Tech department?" the guard scoffs. "This place isn't for you."

"No, wait-" Freddie says, but someone cuts him off.

"Mr. Benson!" Mr. Mitchell walks up fast. "We're so glad you showed up. This clan thing-it's in Seattle. We want to know if you can recognize any of these people we caught."

"Why?" Freddie asks.

"None of these people will give names," Mr. Mitchell lowers his voice. "No matter what, they don't reveal anything. We want to know if you can give any background information on any of these people."

"Okay." Freddie takes a deep breath. What if Sam is among them? He'd have to tell them he knew her. But what would that mean for Sam? Murdering means life in prison or death row. He would have to find some way to get her out of this one. Again.

As he looked at the people in the cells, his heart lurched. How many of these young souls did he look by on the street, not knowing their actual fate? None of them looked familiar... Until he saw one face that stood out.

A girl he used to know in Junior year. The girl was named Rachel, and her cheeks were streaked with tears and her hair was a tangled mess. Like all of them, she looked bruised and cut all over. She seems to recognize him too, as she stands up and presses her face against the bars.

"I know her," Freddie says quickly.

"Alright, come on." Mr. Mitchell unlocks the door and brings the young girl into a room. Freddie can see her hands are cuffed.

They go into a room with two chairs, and a desk in-between them. Mr. Mitchell forces Rachel to sit, and says to Freddie, "Can you find out all you know? You know her the best. Every exchange will be recorded up there," He points at the little recorder in the corner of the room, at the very highest point on the wall.

He exits the room and Freddie sits down. Rachel immediately bursts into tears.

"Shh, it's okay." Freddie soothed. "You're okay. Things will go a lot more smoother if we talk."

"Freddie," she sobs. "I can't do this. You have to get me out of here!"

"I am working on it," he promised. "But you need to help me out here by answering my questions. The quicker you answer them, the quicker you can get out of here. Okay?"

Rachel just continued to cry and slightly nodded.

"Can you tell me your name?" Freddie asks.

"Wavelength," she replied softly.

"No," Freddie says. "Your name is not Wavelength. Tell me your name."

"It's Wavelength!" she protests. "It's been Wavelength since graduation!"

"What was it before that, then?" Freddie says impatiently. "What was the name your mother called you?"

"I'm not allowed to say my real name!" Rachel cries. "Don't you get it?"

"No," Freddie says. "So tell me. Who says you can't say your name?"

"You know," Rachel drops her voice. "Our leader. The one who controls the system."

"What is her name?" Freddie asks.

Rachel refuses to meet his eyes. "I shouldn't say! I'm not allowed to! I'll get cut for it!"

"Cut?" he asks. He knows what "cut" means but he has to get as much info out of her as possible. "Can you tell me what that means?"

"Cut," she repeats. "Killed. Murdered. You name it."

She stops and says, "Wait, I shouldn't be telling this stuff! That camera can hear it!" she points at the recorder.

"They are only trying to help you," Freddie objects.

"But I have the right of silence!" she spat.

"Rachel-" Freddie begins.

_"That's not my name!"_ she screeches. "Stop it! You're ruining everything!"

She is going hysterical again, and she covers her face with her small, bruised hands.

"Wavelength," he says, very, very softly. "Wavelength, what do you know about...Goldielocks?"

"Goldielocks?" Rachel says confusingly. "She-" she looks at the recorder.

"Keep your voice low and it won't hear you," Freddie mutters to her.

"She used to go to highschool with us," Rachel whispers. "You guys were together throughout senior year, remember? And you guys did that cute little webshow?"

"That's right," Freddie whispers. "But what has she been up to?"

"For a while, she seemed upset. Never wanting to leave the meeting place. Two friends were with her always." Rachel blinks. "Why do you need to know about Goldielocks?"

"Confidential," he replies. "Is that all you know?"

"Yes," she says.

"Nothing further." he replies.

Rachel is brought back to her cell and Mr. Mitchell seeks Freddie out again. "Can we have you talk to a few more?" he asks.

"Something came up," Freddie says as he leaves the prison. "I-I have to go."

"Freddie, wait!" That was Lindsay's voice. Freddie watched as the girl walked up to him. "I'll give you a ride. Remember, I brought you here?"

"Oh. Right." Freddie nods. She smiles at him and leads him to her car.

_Flashback:_

_(Freddie's POV) June 1, 2012. 7:23 P.M._

_ "Hey, Sam!" He calls as he knocks on her door. "Open up!"_

_ He heard her breathless reply, "H-Hold on!" she gasps._

_ "Is everything alright?" Freddie asks, confused._

_ "Everything's fine!" he heard her shuffling through things. "Just...looking...for...!"_

_ "Sam?" he calls. "Are you okay?"_

_ The door opens. Sam is beside the door, her clothes disheveled, her hair a tangled mess. She just nods to him. "Uh, hi!"_

_ "Are you okay? What happened?" Freddie presses._

_ "I, uh, thought I lost something." Sam replies as she puts on her hoodie. "H-How've you been?"_

_ "You're all out of breath," Freddie observes._

_ "Been searching." She replies, her breath still coming out in gasps._

_ "Um, okay." he says. He tingles all over as he remembers what's in his palm. "So, Sam, I was wondering..."_

_ "Yes?" She blinks at him innocently. He loves it when she does that._

_ "After graduation, come straight here, okay?" Freddie says, hoping that he could keep the excitement out of his voice._

_ "And why?" she says calmly, tracing an invisible pattern on his palm with her finger._

_ "You'll see," he promises._

_ She smirks at him and moves away for a moment. Freddie takes a moment to look at the small object in his hand. The ring. He stuffs it in his pocket while she's not looking._

She'll see it eventually, _he thinks giddily. _Right after graduation.


	6. Chapter 6: Secrets

**(A/N: Thanks for the positive reviews, guys. Nothing makes me more happy to sign on here and see new reviews XD It's like getting a cupcake everytime. And cupcakes are delicious)**

**Disclaimer: I forgot to mention, not only do I not own iCarly, but I don't own any songs or movies I mention in this.**

(Sam's POV)

A ragged coughing woke Sam up from an uneasy rest. She flutters her eyes open and sees that X-Rated was hacking awfully over the steering wheel. Ultraviolet began to wake up in the passager seat as well, looking confusenly at X-Rated.

"You okay?" Sam asks.

X-Rated continues to cough. Sam can see that his eyes are red and puffy. "I'm fine," he mutters. "It's all this wet air. I'll get over it."

"Maybe you should sleep," Ultraviolet advised.

"I'm fine." X-Rated growls back. "It's just a cough."

"Come on, pull over." Ultraviolet says sternly. "You better rest. Shake the cough off before it becomes serious."

"I'll drive," Sam offers.

X-Rated grunts, which could mean a yes or a no, and he never really clarifies. He pulls to the side of the road and switch off. Sam gets behind the wheel and drives off.

Within minutes, X-Rated is asleep. His coughing ceases and is mouth is wide open in soundless snores. There was silence now, and Sam glances sideways at Ultraviolet.

"So?" Sam begins.

"Yes?" Ultraviolet looks at Sam with questioning eyes.

"Can you explain what happened the other night?" Sam asks.

"What?" Ultraviolet narrows her eyes.

"With that guy I nearly cut." Sam says. Ultraviolet's face colors. "You screamed at me to stop."

Ultraviolet opens her jaws to say something, but Sam cuts her off. "And don't say you didn't want me to kill him for moral values. A few months ago you dropped a pregnant woman in her sleep. So tell me the truth."

Ultraviolet just sighs, making her dark bangs flutter. "What does it matter?" she growls. "It was a long time ago."

"Well, everything was a 'long time ago'," Sam replies. "But no one wants to drop anything. At all."

_Unfortunately,_ Sam adds silently. She remembers the impending task of telling Freddie what happened. Couldn't he just drop it? No, of course not. The truth always manages to pull through somehow.

Ultraviolet crosses her arms over her chest. "Me and X-Rated promised not to tell anyone."

"Oh?" Sam says angrily. "So I'm too dim to get it? I told you guys _my_ secret!"

"Yes, but only when you needed our help." Ultraviolet points out.

"Ultraviolet, please!" Sam says. "Just tell me. How bad could it possibly be?"

_Flashback:_

_(Ultraviolet's POV) May 24, 2009. 2:32 P.M._

_ Ultraviolet was late._

_ She weaves through the abandoned parking lot to the brick wall, and sees Cashmere already standing beside the wall. She meets him up there, and he confronts her._

_ "Where have you been?" Cashmere demands._

_ "It was hard to get rid of my friends," Ultraviolet replies a second before she kisses him._

_ He pulls away. "Was it that guy?" he asks. "R-Rated?"_

_ "X-Rated," Ultraviolet corrects._

_ "Well, was it?" Cashmere asks, shaking his head a bit to flip the blonde hair out of his eyes._

_ "It doesn't matter." Ultraviolet says._

_ "I'm telling you," Cashmere says. "Every time he nearly catches you, you are never up for anything."_

_ "I am now." Ultraviolet says before she presses her lips against his. He kisses back with a smile, and before anything could happen Ultraviolet hears a sarcastic voice:_

_ "Having fun there?"_

_ She freezes and whips around, her eyes wide._

_ "Oh, sorry." It was X-Rated's voice. "I didn't mean to interrupt your little party. I'll just go back to the coffee shop you told me and Goldielocks to wait at for an hour."_

_ "Who's there?" Cashmere hisses, lashing out his switchblade._

_ "That's a pretty little weapon you got there," X-Rated teases in the dark. Ultraviolet still can't make him out. She can't tell what direction his voice is coming from. "Where'd you buy it? At the hardware store?"_

_ "Where are you!" Cashmere spits out. "Get where I can see you!"_

_ "And how bout you, Violet?" Ultraviolet could hear the snicker in X-Rated's voice. "You haven't said a word. This isn't official, the cops don't know about this. So you don't have the right of silence. Sorry, girl."_

_ "X-Rated," Ultraviolet forces herself to say evenly. "We can talk about this. I'm going to ask you to leave, Cashmere, to make this easier."_

_ "No!" Cashmere hisses back. "If this guy thinks he's so jacked, he'd come out where I can see him!"_

_ "I'm right here."_

_ Before Ultraviolet could react, X-Rated jumps towards Cashmere puts the knife on Cashmere's neck._

_ "X-Rated!" Ultraviolet hisses. "Stop it!"_

_ "Drop it," X-Rated growls. "The knife. Drop it now."_

_ Cashmere lets the switchblade hit the ground. "Okay," X-Rated says calmly. "Now get your ass out of here. Now."_

_ He pushes Cashmere to the floor, and he scrambles off the ground. The blonde guy took one look at Ultraviolet._

_ "Just go," she growls. "I got this."_

_ Cashmere slips away, easily disappearing in the darkness._

_ "Bye, boo!" X-Rated calls in a teasing, mocking girl voice._

_ Once they were alone, Ultraviolet turns to X-Rated. "Why did you follow me?"_

_ "I have every right to follow you," he replies easily._

_ "But why?" she asks, her voice lined with desperation._

_ X-Rated glares at her. "You know the rules! You could die for this!"_

_ "Yeah, well no offense, but the rule is __**stupid**__," she growls._

_ "Well, yeah. Half of the Comeback's rules are stupid." X-Rated says. "I always thought this rule was one of the most stupid. But this time I have to agree with it."_

_ Ultraviolet glares at him._

_ "He's a Fatherhood, Ultraviolet." X-Rated says. "He and you would screw up everything. When you're on a plan of assassination, what would you do if he was one of the ones who had to die? How could you deal?"_

_ Ultraviolet doesn't respond._

_ "I don't agree with not having relationships with other indiviuals," X-Rated says. "But a Fatherhood and a Comeback is probably the most fucked up thing I have ever heard. I thought the rule was so unwritten that it didn't have to be written, but Severa decided to anyways. You know what she'd do? You'd die, I'd die for knowing, and probably Goldielocks would too even if she doesn't know, and he would die, along with anyone he assossicated with." X-Rated tilts his head to one side. "Is it worth it?"_

_ "No," she snaps. "But you don't understand."_

_ "Yes, I know nothing about love." X-Rated says, his voice tight and close to breaking out of control. "Silly me."_

_ "You don't even know the half of it!" Ultraviolet splutters. She's feeling that feeling again. She told herself to get over it, that X-Rated would never come around to her because they're nearly family and he has relationships with almost every other girl. She remembers the jealously she felt when X-Rated nearly caught her the first time a few weeks ago. How he began rubbing Wavelength in her face. She clenches her teeth. It doesn't matter. Why should she hold out for X-Rated when he never, ever did for her? Cashmere's been there for her. Always._

_ "Well," X-Rated says, forcing his voice calmer again. "I'm sorry I interrupted your 'love affair'. Goldielocks's probably getting worried. I'll be going now. See you... Whenever."_

_ Now Ultraviolet sees what's happening. He's giving up on her. He's walking away and he's simply not caring. Ultraviolet felt something deep inside crack, like an eggshell. Everytime she swallows she feels the eggshell shattering more._

_ No._

_ She suddenly runs after X-Rated. With his assassin hearing, he whips around. Before he can stop it, before anyone can stop it, Ultraviolet kisses him full on. It only lasts a second before she pulls away, her eyes wide._

_ She doesn't bother to wait for her response, because she's already bolting away. Then, she hears X-Rated call her name-_

(Sam's POV)

_"What?" _Sam gasps a bit too loudly. "That actually happened!"

"Yes, and I wasn't finished." Ultraviolet says, her voice thin.

"Then what happened!" Sam asks.

"Well, I wouldn't talk to him for a while, but we decided that any kind of relationship between us is illogical and completely unreasonable so we just decided to drop it." Ultraviolet says quietly.

Sam blinks. "You guys just talked it out?"

"No," she mutters. "We never spoke of it again. The message was still clear though."

"But you can fix that!" Sam exclaims, still keeping her voice down. "I kissed Freddie a long time ago at a lock-in. Not even a day before that, he thought I hated him. So I ran. And then I figured out that he felt the same way. These things can happen!"

"Wait, don't you get it?" Ultraviolet says rustily. "This was all six years ago! When me and him were eighteen! There is no possiblity of any feelings remaining over the years."

She glances to the backseat. Sam does as well, and sees that X-Rated is still sleeping.

"How about you?" Sam asks, gripping the steering wheel. "Do you still love him?"

Ultraviolet doesn't respond.

"And that Cashmere guy? That was the same guy I was about to cut, wasn't he?" Sam presses.

Ultraviolet gives a little nod.

"Did you just stop meeting him?" Sam asks.

"No," she mutters. "We kinda, er, fell out. Found out about me and X-Rated. He told me he didn't want to see me anymore. It was kind of a relief."

"But you looked pretty panicked over there," Sam says.

"Well, I haven't seen him in almost six years." Ultraviolet points out.

"Okay, just one more question." Sam says. "But you have to be completely honest."

"Okay," Ultraviolet says warily. "What?"

"Do you love X-Rated?" Sam asks.

"I don't want to talk about this." Ultraviolet growls.

"I tell you two everything!" Sam wails.

"No you don't!" Ultraviolet scoffs. "You didn't tell us about Freddie until-"

"Yeah, yeah." Sam waves her away. "C'mon. Just tell me."

Ultraviolet looks away.

"You know I wouldn't tell nobody," Sam says.

"Yeah, well..." Ultraviolet mutters. "It's personal."

"Just tell me." Sam presses.

"Okay!" Ultraviolet spits out. "I do. Whatever, though. It was six years ago, and he's let it go. And I will too. Just give it more time."

"It's already been six years," Sam points out.

"Whatever." Ultraviolet crosses her arms over her chest.

Sam smiles. Even after six years of silence she still manages to have feelings for him. She wonders if it was the same case with her and Freddie. She still loved him, but there was no way he could want her back. Not after all the lies and deception.

Sam glances behind her again, and she skin crawls at the sight.

X-Rated is still in the backseat with his eyes shut.

Except one thing.

He was grinning.

He must have heard everything.

_Flashback:_

_(Freddie's POV) March 2nd, 2012. 1:34 P.M. _

_ "Party Rock is in the house tonnighttt." Freddie could hear Sam singing as she walked down Carly's stairs. He looks up and sees her walking down the stairs with Carly in Carly's apartment. He sat on the couch with Spencer, watching Celebrities Underwater. "Everybody just have a good timeeee."_

_ "And we gon' make you looossee your minddd." Freddie sang back, teasingly._

_ "We just wanna see you..." Sam pulls Freddie up from the couch, grasps his shoulders and pulls him closer. She gently kisses him for once, since all of their kisses seem to be agressive and passionate and heartfelt and intense._

_ Sam pulls away and Freddie gently puts his lips to her ear and says, "Shake that."_

_ Then the two smile and they both say together, "Everyday I'm shuf-"_

_ "Yes, yes." Came an irritated voice. They both turned to see Spencer rolling his eyes. "You're all shuffling. Now shut it, Carrie Underwood is about to pass out."_

_ "Ignore him," Carly says, her eyes bright. "C'mon, iCarly's gonna start soon."_

_ "Right," Freddie says, follow Carly up the stairs._

_ "Let's hit it," Sam grasped his hand and they walk up the stairs together. _

_ They walk into the studio. Sam stuffs her other hand in her pocket and says, "Hey, have any of you seen my phone?"_

_ "No," Carly replies._

_ "Where's the last place you saw it?" Freddie asks._

_ Sam just glares at him. "If I knew that, I would know where it is!" she smacked his shoulder._

_ "Hey!" he protests. "I was just trying to help!"_

_ Suddenly, from the other end of the room, Sam's ringtone for her phone starts playing. Her ringtone is the song "Family Reunion" by Blink 182, and all it is is just the lead singer screaming out profanity. Sam crosses the room and picks up her phone. Her face drops when she looks at the caller ID._

_ "Is anything wrong?" Freddie asks, walking towards her._

_ "N-No, just wait!" Sam backs away from him. She answers her phone._

_ "Heey." Sam says, her voice tense._

_ Freddie strains to hear. Is that a guy on the other end of the phone? No, it was a girl. She could hardly make out the girl's words, but she sounded frustrated._

_ "Okay, okay, cool it." Sam says, sounding annoyed. "I'm just hanging with friends."_

_ The girl on the phone began yelling, and Sam hisses, "Shut it! Talk quieter!" then Freddie could no longer hear the convo. "Okay, I'll be there." Sam says, then shuts off her phone._

_ "...Who was that?" Freddie asks warily._

_ "My mom," Sam growls back. "She's pissed. C'mon, let's start the webshow."_

_ "Why is she mad?" Freddie asks._

_ "Who knows?" Sam rolls her eyes. "Let's start it."_

_ The webshow goes well as always. After it was over, Sam seemed quick to leave. "I have to go," she says hurryingly._

_ "Why?" Freddie asks, downcast. "I thought we were gonna go... Yu know... To your house."_

_ "Can't, my mom's home." Sam is already walking out the door._

_ "See you later, Sammy!" He calls after her._

_ "Bye, boo!" She's already closing the door._

_ About five minutes pass, and Carly is walking down the stairs with Sam's Pearphone. "She forgot her phone," Carly says._

_ "That's too bad." Freddie says. "I'll give it to her tomorrow."_

_ "Got it," Carly hands it to him. "See you later."_

_ "Bye," Freddie walks across the hall to his own apartment. Now that he has Sam's phone, he couldn't help but feel a pang of curiosity. He wasn't a snoop but the whole convo seemed too weird earlier with Sam and her mom. The voice on the other end of the line seemed too young and too... Not shitfaced. He didn't get it._

_ He checks her recent calls, and feels a throbbing pain in his pants. Exactly at the same place he would feel pain if Sam found out about this. He looks at the caller ID._

_ And instead of the contact being called "Mom", the contact was called "teloivartlu"._

_ Now, Freddie, straight A student, M.I.T. scholarship, doesn't even know what the word "teloivartlu" means. He checks another contact before that, and sees "detarx"._

_ He has no idea what either of these words mean. He looks for any pictures of them or anything, but he can't find it. _

_ Suddenly, he gets an idea. He takes his own Pearphone and begins to transfer the numbers on her phone to his. Just in case. He feels bad for all of this, but this is too shady, even for Sam._

(Freddie's POV)

"Thank you for the ride," Freddie tells Lindsay politely.

"Anytime, Freddie." Lindsay replies gently, her hazel eyes brimming.

Freddie gives an awkward nod and backs away. He gets into his own car and starts to drive in the direction of his own home.

_Now, where could Sam be..._ Freddie thinks to himself. Probably hiding, he assumes. Hiding from the police. They had her file, and they were probably looking for her as they were for everyone.

He keeps trying to think of places she could be. She couldn't be at the place she was when she was hiding from him since it was shut down. She must be in random places around the street. On the move. Hiding from the world.

He tries to make a mental map. She wouldn't be anywhere left of Valleyedge street, because that dark haired girl said that was Fatherhood territory. She may or not be in the orginial Comeback territory because cops are bustling the place. So, she must be scattered somewhere in-between.

He allows himself to think of all of the souls who were already captured. The files on the computer. Pictures of some of them killing others. They could say little in their defense. Freddie groaned outloud as he realized Mr. Mitchell's tatic.

None of these people have to talk if they didn't want to. They have the right of silence. But Mr. Mitchell must have wanted Freddie to talk to them so they could get more information. More evidence. More proof.

He sighed. He won't talk to any more. He believes it's sick and messed up to trick people into trusting, when it's only hurting them.

He hopes the little info Rachel said didn't help dig her grave.

As he drives, he wonders if he should just go out and find Sam right now. It's getting kind of dark now and he wonders if he should just wait until morning. He doesn't want to wait. If Sam is found, she would be arrested and tried. She couldn't afford a lawyer. She could hardly afford anything.

Suddenly, he gets a random thought that rushes throughout his body. Before he knew it, he's pulling to the side of the road and is scrambling through his car. "Where is it?" he says out loud to no one in pacticular, mostly because no one is there to hear. "Where is it!" he pulls through all the clutter that really has built up the last few days.

He had wanted to get rid of it long ago. In a furious, sobbing rage, he had thrown it into the back of his car and told himself to forget about it. But it was always there. All three years it sat back there, under all of the papers and bags. His hands grasp it and he pulls it up. There it was.

The ring.

He looks at it, and waits to feel the haze of tears in his eyes again. He always feels it when he looks at it or even thinks of it. But this time, no tears come. He's too numb to cry. He always imagined that when he found Sam, everything would be fine again. That the only challenge was finding Sam and that was it. It's proven to be much, much more.

Suddenly, his phone rings. He lifts it up and sees that Carly is calling. Blinking in confusion, he answers it.

"Hello?" he says.

"Freddie!" It's Carly's breathless voice. "Come quick! Hurry!"

"What?" What's wrong?" Freddie asks seriously.

"I just saw Sam!" Carly gasps back.


	7. Chapter 7: Chains

(Sam's POV)

Sam watches the wet world from outside the car window at the parking lot they were in. Unfortunately, this wasn't all night parking. Once the sun goes down, they must find away to move their car away from there.

Their car had run out of fuel a long while ago. They managed to get it to the parking lot right before it died. They've been sitting in the car aimlessly for an hour now.

Sam shifts to the right, barely stopping the wince of pain. She was stiff and wet with rainwater and her wounds were aching horribly. She was thankful that Freddie put bandages on the worst of them, or she may have been a goner.

X-Rated's coughing seemed to get worse and worse. He's sitting in a bundle in the back of the car, shaking and convulsing at every cough. "I'm fine," he persists. "Now stop worrying about it."

"Look, we can't just leave it alone." Sam says. "It'll only get worse."

"I tell you, I am fine!" X-Rated says before breaking into another fit of coughing, right into Sam's face.

"You're going to affect us all," Ultraviolet says. "Then what'd we do? We gotta make sure we're all healthy here."

"O-kay, Ultraviolet." X-Rated slid back, grinning for a second before coughing again.

"What?" Ultraviolet asks, confused.

"Oh, nothing." He replies between coughs.

Sam just whips her head back and glares at him full on. She understood the exchange but Ultraviolet clearly didn't. If X-Rated heard everything, then he's clearly playing with her. She suddenly feels angry at herself for talking to Ultraviolet about it. If she hadn't, then X-Rated wouldn't know and he wouldn't be having fun with it.

"Should we just give him ibiprophen?" Ultraviolet asks Sam.

Sam looks through the meager supplies that they managed to escape with. Two bottles of water. Twenty dollars. A bottle of ibiprophen with only four doses left. Three or four scattered cigarettes. A full pack of saltine crackers. A half empty jar of peanut butter.

"We should save it for when we really need it," Sam says. "Besides, it doesn't help too much with coughs."

Ultraviolet and X-Rated stare hungrily at the ibiprophen bottle. Sam knew why. She wanted it just as much as they did. It's hard to get stabbed a few times and then ignore it as if it hadn't happened. Sam shifts again and feels shooting pain through her shoulder. She wanted to rip open that bottle of ibiprophen and swallow them all. But she was least entitled to it, since she got some medical care for her injuries, unlike the other two.

"Look," Sam says. "We're close to a neighborhood. I'll just break into one of their houses and steal some cough medicine."

"In broad daylight?" Ultraviolet scoffs. "You're crazy."

"I don't think that's such a good idea-" X-Rated says before breaking into coughing.

"I'll be quick," Sam's already opening the car door. "Just hang tight."

"Goldielocks, wait-" X-Rated says.

"Byyye." Sam is already closing the car door and running towards the forest beside the neighborhood. As she rips through the trees, she thinks of how she could possibly break into a house in broad daylight. She has before, but she nearly got caught. And what if she couldn't find any cough medicine?

She breaks through the woods and looks at the neighborhood stretching before her. She groans out loud. The neighborhood was a lot nicer than Sam had imagined. It would be next to impossible to break into one of these clean-cut houses in the sunlight.

Sam refuses to turn back, though. She recalls how when she was seven, Ultraviolet would tell her that her fatal flaw was her impulse. Sam refuses to turn back empty-handed.

She figures she might be able to scrap up some garbage or something that might serve some value. She always hated people who live in these kinds of enviroments. They throw away food that could still be eaten. Sam could salvage some of what their ignorance left behind, and perhaps even find some coughdrops that could ease X-Rated's cough temporarily.

As Sam slid into one of the yards, something hits her hard. She remembers how she just bluntly left X-Rated and Ultraviolet alone. There was the impulse again. What was happening now? X-Rated knew. Ultraviolet doesn't want to face it. Now what will happen? She shouldn't have left them alone.

She decides to deal with it later, and hurry while she's looking for everything. That way, maybe she won't come back to find that both Ultraviolet and X-Rated killed themselves in an all-out war.

Before Sam could look through trashcans, she's greeted by a welcome sight. A lunchbox that a child seemed to leave behind. Sam immediately jumped on the easy food, shoving whatever she could hold in her shirt. Oh well. The kid's mother could easily make him another one.

She comes up to a fence. She looks through one of the cracks and sees a family of three in the yard. One is a tall, broad-shouldered guy who looks fairly familiar to Sam. Another is a tiny boy who looks like someone she used to know. And the last is a dark haired girl who has her back turned to Sam.

Sam is about to go around their house so she could search other yards when she notices that one of their first story windows is somewhat open. Well, open enough for Sam to slide through.

_The whole family is outside,_ Sam argues with herself. _I could just sneak in, get the cough medicine, and then leave just as quick._

Sam's inner demons forced her defense system to break down, and now she's climbing through the window. This is a piece of cake for Sam, who has broken into more first story windows than she can count. Just as she had for second story windows. And some third. A couple fourth. Once through a twelvth story, but that is a part of her life she would rather forget.

Sam slides in and sees that she landed in some sort of office. Sam just ignores it and looks both ways before stepping into the hallway.

She hears no voices, no presence of life. Sam grits her teeth and continues on. She sees their kitchen up ahead, and she hurries quickly to it. She opens up cabinet after cabinet.

_Come on,_ she says to herself. _It has to be here somewhere! _She desperately looks for any kind of medicine cabinet. Anything that could contain the drugs.

She finally opens it up and sees all sorts of little bottles full of prescription and non-prescription medicines. She almost cheered out loud when she saw a vial of deep purple liquid. It read "cough medicine" on the label.

This is all Sam needed, and now she has to split. As soon as her quick hand encloses around the bottle, she hears a frightful, angry voice: "Hey!"

They must have come inside. The voice is familiar to Sam, as if she heard it in a dream or something. Sam immediately dashes off, the bottle still in her palm. Right as she's about to leap out the window, she takes one look at her pursuer. And this is her undoing.

It was Carly.

Carly's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. Sam pauses for a half-second beside the window, her heart racing. Carly! She hasn't seen Carly in three years. Like Freddie, she was one of Sam's best friends. Like her twin sister since Melanie was never around. Carly looks the same, maybe a bit more mature, and she seems to be pregnant. She's beside the office room door, frozen in shock.

"Sam!" Carly gasps.

Sam let herself fall from the window. Landing on her feet like a cat (with years and years of practice, mind you) she began to run into some other random yard. She doesn't start heading towards the woods until she's completely sure she's out of Carly's sight. Just so it would be a bit harder to follow where she went.

She easily gets through the woods, her head dizzy. She just saw Carly after all these years. Carly saw her after all these years. Now what? She'll probably call someone. Maybe Freddie. Hopefully not the cops...! Maybe eleven years of friendship prior to this will help change Carly's judgment.

She dashes through the parking lot and Ultraviolet opens the door for her.

"What happened?" Ultraviolet demands.

If X-Rated wanted to say something, it was drowned out by his own coughing.

Sam held up the purple bottle that was still encased in her hand. "I-I was spotted though," Sam confessed.

"I knew it!" X-Rated hisses. "We told you not to g-" He begins to cough again.

"Just drink a few spoonfuls of that stuff and shut it!" Sam spat. She turns to Ultraviolet. "But it wasn't any other person who saw me," Sam continues breathlessly. "It was Carly."

"Your friend?" Ultraviolet stiffens.

"Yes," Sam says. "Now, we need to split before she tries to follow us."

"Where are we supposed to go?" X-Rated rasped. He already swallowed one spoonful of the medicine and was about to swallow the other. "Our car's out of gas. We can't just abandon it." He swallows the next spoonful with a shudder. "This stuff's bitter," he splutters.

"Get over it, I risked my ass for it." Sam growls. "So what do you guys suppose we do?"

"You think she'd follow us here?" Ultraviolet asks.

"Yes," Sam says immediately. She remembers her desperate friend, her partner in crime. Yes, Carly would sail the seven seas for Sam, just as Sam would do for Carly. That bond was the reason Sam left without goodbye. "Come on," she says. "We can grab the car later, no?"

"The parking isn't free," Ultraviolet points out.

"This car is stolen anyway!" Sam says impatiently. "Now come on, we have to leave!"

Sam opens up their travel bag and puts the rest of the medicine and the stolen lunch box food inside of it. Ultraviolet and X-Rated jump to her side and they set off in the opposite direction.

_Flashback:_

_(Sam's POV) June 1st, 2012 6:37 P.M._

_ Sam has her jaws open in a soundless wail as Zigzag presses on one of her major pressure points. She shoves him away, her teeth gritting in pain. But within a second Zigzag has the upper hand again._

_ Zigzag is one of the fastest people Sam has ever fought. She presses the dull side of her blade onto his cheek, simulating what would happen if he had been a Fatherhood. Once again Zigzag merely shoves her away again, and whips at her again just as fast._

_ Sam shoves his head down once he stumbles. Slamming it against the ground, she forces the knife to his neck. The two stop the practice-fight and stand up, panting._

_ "Good work," Zigzag gasps to her._

_ "Yeah, you too." Sam nods to him. "The way you shoved me away at that part where I had the blade at your cheek was really good, I-" Suddenly, she felt herself convulse. Choking, Sam had little time to squirm away from Zigzag and vomit into a trashcan. She felt a cold sweat break out after about a minute of continous vomiting. She pulls away, weak and trembling._

_ "Woah, are you okay?" Zigzag was at her side. "What's all this about?"_

_ "I don't know..." Sam says, confusingly. "I just got really woozy all of a sudden."_

_ "Why don't you sit out for a bit?" Zigzag advised. "Clear your head."_

_ "Okay," Sam scrambled off. She wasn't woozy anymore. It just happened so quick, and now it was over._

_ Suddenly a specific thought came into her head, and she forced it out, buried it 500 feet underground and then poured an ocean over it. _

Impossible,_ she thinks to herself. What was she thinking? There was no way it was possible. No way at all._

(Freddie's POV)

"What do you mean, you saw Sam?" Freddie demands. How could Carly have possibly seen Sam? Where was Sam now? Had she seeked out Carly?

"S-She was in my house!" Carly sounded as if she was hyperventilating. "I-I think she stole something from me, I'm n-not sure... Freddie, I'm sure it was her! It _had_ to be her!"

"Carly, Carly, calm down." Freddie soothes. "I'll come over there. We'll look for her."

"She just jumped out of my window, Freddie!" Carly says over and over again. "She just disappeared! Oh, what if we can't find her!"

"We'll find her, Carly." Freddie promises. He realizes that Carly doesn't know that he saw Sam. That this should be huge news to him as it is to her. He needs to find Sam _now._ Why had she gone to Carly's house? What was she expecting to find?

He arrives to Carly's house, and she immediately springs herself into Freddie's arms. Freddie can see that Carly has been crying. "Come on," she gasps. "We need to find her!"

"Where did she run off to?" Freddie asks.

"I don't know," she sniffles. "She ran in that direction," she lifts a finger, pointing towards left. "But I had Alex check over there, and her footprints just ended eruptly. It's like she disappeared!"

Freddie knew Sam must have just used one of her other tactics that she has in her sleeve. Freddie looks over at the atmosphere. Freshly cut lawns all around on the eastside and westside. The south had a road, which led to more nice houses. Then a tiny, thick woods.

Freddie can guess where Sam went.

"Up here," Freddie says, gesturing with his arm. "She might be hiding in the woods." They begin to search through the bushes and the trees.

Freddie looks up and sees through the trees. Sam's car. He began to run towards it, breaking out of the forest and onto a parking lot. She sees Sam's car and dashes towards it.

He ignores Carly's cries of confusion and collides with the car. He looks through the windows and sees no one inside. They must have left their car.

"Damn," he growls out loud. Sometimes it seems as if those three people were always a step ahead of everyone. Always managing to outsmart him in some way.

He looks ahead and he thinks he sees the three walking up ahead. Immediately Freddie begins going after them. Carly, even in her pregnant state, catches up to him. "What? What are you doing?" she persists.

"Up there!" He says, pointing.

"What?" Carly's eyes go wide. "Sam!"

Up ahead, Freddie can see Sam turn her head, her blonde curls whipping to one side. She freezes in place.

"Sam, wait!" Freddie calls after her.

Sam begins to walk towards them, leaving her other friends behind. From farther ahead Freddie can see the other two yelling after her, but Sam just ignores them.

"You guys!" she hisses. "Stop screaming my name!"

"Sam!" Carly is shaking now. "Sam! Where the hell have you been!"

Sam completely ignores Carly and glares at Freddie head on. "You know about this," she snaps. "You and your fucking FBI job. You know what they did." She looks as if she's about to leap at Freddie, but she's keeping herself restrained. "So you're trying to get me caught as well!"

He tries to say something back but Sam just cuts him off. "Save it, Benson! Look, I'm so sorry for any problems we have had in the past! But right now, _we_"-she gestures towards her other friends-"are trying to survive. Isn't that a little bit more important that the truth!"

Carly finally steps up and says, "Sam, what are you talking about! Tell us what happened!"

Sam begins to realize that Carly has no idea of what has happened. Sam just gives her a curt nod. "Hello Carly. I'm sure any questions you have, our friend Freddie here can fill you in." She smiles.

Freddie glances at the darkening sky. "Sam," he says. "Come on. I'm not going to turn you in. But you can't keep running; they'll only search harder."

"And where do you expect us to go, Freddie?" Sam growls. "One of my friends is sick and we barely have a car. We can handle it, now just get your cop friends to stop following us!"

Suddenly, Sam became outlined by red and blue lights. Sam whipped her head around, as did her friends. Freddie could see the police car up ahead.

"Cops!" The guy gasps, gripping the other girl's arm. "Come on! They'll just recognize us."

"Left!" Sam shouts, and suddenly the three were sprinting off once again. Freddie wanted to bury his head in his hands. Yes, the police were searching the area, and yes, they knew their faces. But there was a better chance the police would pass up three young adults who stood by than three who ran off in fear.

"Sam! Wait!" Carly wails after them. Freddie gestures with his arm. "Come on, we'll follow them." Freddie says. They run back through the woods. "You take your car, I'll take mine." Carly nods and gets in her car. Freddie is already screeching the brakes.

He wants to facepalm when he sees that two more police cars joined the party. _Running only makes you look guiltier! _Freddie wanted to yell out. He drives on a side street, looking for the three. No where in sight.

Then he sees them. Up ahead, already far from the police. They must have jumped over fences to be this far already. The guy suddenly stops, his chest heaving. He remembers how Sam said he was sick. If he was sick, he shouldn't be running because his chest and lungs are probably too filled already.

The girls stop for him, but it's clear he can't go on. He thinks about how screwed Sam is at that moment. Her friend is hacking up misery, the police are seconds away and she has no way to leave. But then, as always, Sam manages to find a loophole in this situation as she does always. She points at a motorcycle up ahead, and immediately the dark-haired girl is dashing up to it. Her fingers go to work and within seconds she's hacking the bike.

Freddie can't help but shake his head at their self-efficency.

The guy scrambles over to the motorcycle with Sam's help, and yet another problem comes for the Dynamatic Trio. Only two people can fit on the motorcycle. And suddenly they're all fighting over who should have the two spaces. Then Sam backs up and Freddie can guess that she's offering them her spot. And, like always, when Sam doesn't get her way, she simply dashes off. Leaving them the two spots before they could tell her no.

The police lights were getting closer and Sam's eyes were widening with panic. Where does she expect to go?

She doesn't need to answer that because Freddie is already opening his door and calling Sam's name. "Sam! Get in! Come on, they're coming!"

Sam doesn't need to be told twice, because now she's hurtling herself into his car. She scrabbles over his lap and falls into an unorganized bundle on the passanger seat. "Just go!" She splutters.

Freddie slams on his pedal and drives through side streets until he's sure the cops weren't following him. He doesn't know if they saw Sam getting in his car.

Sam is gripping the seatbelt, her eyes wide. He wonders if she's going into shock. She's gone through so many life-changing and shock-worthy events and still managed to stay strong. But something was controversial about this whole situation.

His cellphone goes off, and he sees that it's Carly. He glances sideways at Sam and she glances back. He answers it with a, "Hello?"

"Freddie!" Carly gasps. Her voice is loud enough for Sam to hear. "Freddie! Have you seen Sam! I can't find her!"

He looks at Sam. Sam just makes a cutting motion towards her neck, signalifying not to tell. Freddie just replies with a, "Haven't seen her. I'm gonna keep looking."

"Alright, tell me if you find her!" Carly says, then hangs up.

Silence.

Freddie glances her way, and sees that Sam's eyes are focused on the ground. Here comes the no talking again. Finally, Freddie manages to say, "She was really worried about you, you know."

"Okay." Sam says rustily. "That makes two people, then."

"Why do you always have to be this way?" Freddie growls. "Carly was very worried, like I said. You wouldn't even acknowledge her."

"What can I say to her?" Sam says desperately. "She's practically my sister. You all should be furious that I left, not going around, trying to find out the truth."

"We are furious," Freddie snickers. "But we care."

"And why?" Sam says. "Pull over."

"Why?" Freddie asks.

"Just do it." Sam orders.

Freddie obeys, but then says, "What? So you can leave again?"

"Enough of that," Sam snaps. "Look, I'm sorry about all of this." Sam swallows, as if this is actually causing her pain. Maybe it is. Thinking that Sam is going through the same emotional turmoil that Freddie has been going through makes him feel... Not happy. Maybe a little sad that someone else had to go through that pain...?

"But I left to protect you. And you know that. To some extent." Freddie sees that Sam's eyes are shiny. "And I still gotta do that. So, how about we just go back to how we were, say, a week ago? Before I came out of hiding? I was wrong to do that. It just caused us all more pain."

Freddie is so surprised by Sam's speech. How hard it is for her to use words to express herself. Now she might think she owes it to him.

"I can't tell you anymore, especially not with Severa all about. Just... Please don't report me or Ultraviolet or X-Rated. Just never mention us. We were thinking about heading to Canada. Seems far-fetched, we know, but no one would suspect it." Sam just nods, and Freddie saw her turn her head away. Hiding something? Tears? "Well... Whatever." She's about to open the door.

Without knowing what he was doing, he suddenly grasped her chin gently and pulled her closer. Before she could stop him-and she could if she wanted to, but Freddie doubted that she did-he kissed her on her mouth. The first time in three years.

He didn't know why he did it. He's still so helplessly heartbroken by her abandonment that he had the right to hate her forever. But it was at that moment that he realized he could never do that. Not in this lifetime, or the next.

Sam grasps his shoulders and pulls him closer. His hands move to her waist and suddenly it becomes much more than a kiss. His hands lower to her hips and Sam began toying with the hair on the back of his head, reminding him of times of when they were eighteen, kissing by day and doing the obvious by night. Now he was twenty one, she was twenty, and they were both so helplessly entangled in chains.

But they were entangled together.


	8. Chapter 8: Chill

(Ultraviolet's POV)

Ultraviolet has taken lives from so many people, much more than she could remember. Lives who well deserved it, and some that didn't. What no one else knew, is that she actually valued human life. It isn't so great to watch the helpless fall under the strong, when they have done no wrongdoing. Watching the innocent die tore at Ultraviolet's heart strings. So, when Goldielocks had accused her of lying about not wanting to kill the Fatherhood for ethical values, it wasn't a total lie. Although watching any Fatherhood die is a treat, she believes that not...ALL...life is worthless.

Watching Goldielocks run away from them, letting them take the motorcycle while she ran straight into the path of the cops, was kind of that situation. Goldielocks is one of the cleverest people she knows, but sometimes her rashness will get her caught up in these situations.

Ultraviolet was concerned, of course, but Goldielocks was no longer her baby, the little girl who needed to be looked after. She's grown and proven herself to be an adult more times than one, but Ultraviolet can still see her as the tiny, blonde-headed girl who starved to death at the base of a garbage can.

Then Ultraviolet realized the situation at hand.

X-Rated, suffering from his coughing and perhaps more, was grasping onto her waist. His eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were flushed. She had to get him out of here before he passed out.

"Hold onto me," Ultraviolet orders. "I'm getting us out of here." X-Rated nods feebly and Ultraviolet began to drive the motorcycle. She has knowledge of how to drive one but she doesn't have too much practice. She drives and drives, listening to the sounds of the sirens fading away.

X-Rated looked at Ultraviolet. His cold, clammy hands were wrapped around her body due to lack of seatbelts. He suddenly broke into another fit of coughing. "We should head to a motel or somethin'," he mumbles. "Wait for Goldielocks to come back."

"That's what I was thinking," Ultraviolet says. "But we have no money. Only twenty dollars."

"Wanna do the usual?" X-Rated asks weakly.

"All out of make-up," Ultraviolet replies.

X-Rated digs in his coat pocket and pulls out a mostly empty stick of lipstick, and a little container holding a few crumbs of eyeshadow. Ultraviolet nods and pulls over near a small town.

"Luckily this one doesn't seem as nice," Ultraviolet says. This one was dirtier and led to a city. Quickly applying the make-up, Ultraviolet slips away from the motorcycle. "Be right back. Stay here." X-Rated nods, fighting back a cough.

Ultraviolet wove her way into an alley. She stands, pressed up against a wall. Her coat hood was over her head, so little strips of black hair were falling over her face and were carelessly tousled beside her neck. It wasn't long before they began swimming towards the bait. A man, wearing a large coat like herself, slid against the wall beside her. He lights a cigarette, staring off into space. They stand next to each other in silence, as always.

Finally, he says, "How much?"

Ultraviolet turns to him and says, "Hundred for the first hour, seventy five for every hour after that."

"Okay, let's do it." The man says.

"No," Ultraviolet growls. "You pay me first."

The man rolls his eyes and shuffles for his wallet. Ultraviolet sees a wedding ring on his ring finger and boils under her skin. He hands her a hundred.

And that's the signal.

Immediately upon recieving the money, Ultraviolet springs at the man. He can do little to resist the attack because Ultraviolet is already pressing her fingers against his wrist. Within seconds, he falls to the ground.

_Thank God for pressure points,_ Ultraviolet muses to herself. She grabs his wallet and takes the remaining cash that was left, seeing that there were no credit cards or anything. She shudders as she removes the extra three-hundred dollars. Was he planning to use it _all_ that night? She drops the empty wallet on him and walks away. He'll wake up eventually.

Ultraviolet hurries back to X-Rated, who was waiting patiently beside the bike.

"How much?" he asks when he sees her.

"Four hundred," she replies, tucking it into her shirt. "He won't miss it."

"Tell me about it," he chuckles. "So, should we go searching for Goldielocks?"

Ultraviolet remembers how Goldielocks simply ran off. "Maybe she was heading towards her guy," she says. "I mean, how else did she expect to escape? Let's just find a motel. Wait a day for her to come back."

"We could do that," X-Rated agrees. He swallows uncomfortably. "The medicine's starting to work."

"Better stop running, then. I thought you were having an asthma attack." Ultraviolet says.

"You were worried?" X-Rated asks, raising his eyebrows.

Ultraviolet gave him a weird look. "Of course I was. You were nearly dying. We were all worried."

X-Rated smirks.

Ultraviolet looks at him. "What are you doing?"

X-Rated leans in for a second (Ultraviolet was afraid he might cough into her face) and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "As if you don't know."

Ultraviolet backed away. "You're acting weird." she says. "Loopy medicine getting to you?"

X-Rated brushes his russet-colored tufty curls out of his eyes. "You could say that."

"Come on," Ultraviolet says stiffly. "We're wasting time. Let's just head to a motel or something."

They rode on their stolen motorcycle, looking for a place. They found one easily, and easily got in. Usually they would have just broken into one without paying but they were on the run as it was, so they better not risk it. They got into their tiny, dirty room, which was the same as every motel they have stayed at.

"This is definately one of the better ones we've stayed at," Ultraviolet says brightly. "They managed to include a bar of soap."

"Nice." X-Rated says, twisting the top of the jar of peanut butter they brought.

"Don't doubledip the spoon or you'll get us all sick," Ultraviolet warns.

"You guys would be sick already then," X-Rated says, eating a spoonful of peanut butter. "I've been coughing in your faces all day."

Ultraviolet collasped onto the stiff bed, sighing so her bangs fluttered. "Should we go after Goldielocks?"

"Nah," X-Rated says. "Not yet, at least. We'll find her. She needs to figure everything out with that guy of hers."

"Do you think she told him yet?" Ultraviolet asks.

"No way. She's too secretive." X-Rated says with a shrug. "He'll find out in good time, though."

"Will they get back together? They were together all through their senior year." Ultraviolet begins to say, fast. "I know the Comebacks allow no outside romances. But I mean, do the Comebacks even exist anymore after all of this shit? And where is Severa? Did she abandon the Comebacks? I mean-"

"Ahem." X-Rated sat on the bed and leans down to Ultraviolet. "I don't want to talk about Goldielocks at the moment."

Ultraviolet blinks at him. "Then what do you want to talk about?"

X-Rated stares at her evenly for a while. Then he says, "I know that was Cashmere at the raid."

Ultraviolet looks at the ground. "We swore to never talk about it. It's behind us."

"You sure?" X-Rated raises an eyebrow.

Ultraviolet looks up at him. "Yeah, I'm sure." Ultraviolet half-closes her eyes. When was the last time she slept? Two days? "Why you asking?"

X-Rated gently brushes her bangs out of her eyes and Ultraviolet hears him murmur to himself, "As if you don't know."

_Flashback:_

_ (Unknown POV) April 29, 2013 4:30 A.M._

_ So young._

_ So small._

_ So innocent._

_ She lays in the night, thinking of the soft-edged pillow in the family room. The tufty, heavenly edges that she loves to stare at. The other blonde boy looks at her quizzically, but she ignores him. She loves the little pillow with the tiny rose on it. The ripped up edges. So classy yet so simple. _

_ They say the young don't remember anything. But they can remember the warmth and the trust given to them. So when they're older, they show how trustworthy they are due to this. She was given trust, of course, but it wasn't from the right people._

_ Even a infant knows that._

(Sam's POV)

Sam opens her eyes, and she must make that mental assessment as always. Where is she? Is she safe? The last time she woke up she was in a bloody bathtub. Where was she now?

She was entangled in Freddie's arms on his bed in presumingly in his house. Sam remembers last night's events and lets the worry fade. For once, she deserves to wake up not surrounded in terror or fear. She has woken up to assassins from other organizations and crazed people with guns and rapid dogs: you name it, she woke up to it. But waking up now might be the scariest of them all.

She adds her own fuel to the flames by reaching up and kissing Freddie, who was still sleeping. He wakes up, his eyes widening as he realizes his own situation at hand.

What does Sam care?

She pulls away and asks him, "What happened?"

Freddie slighly smiles. "I think you have amnesia."

"No," Sam says. "I just want to hear it again."

"You didn't know where to go because you left your friends so I took you here." Freddie says calmly.

"And that's all that happened?" Sam asks with a smirk.

"Pfft." Freddie says, pulling her closer. "Don't think this'll get you out of telling the truth."

"I wouldn't imagine it." Sam replies.

They lay together for a while, thinking. Then Freddie says, "This organization of yours... They're the Comebacks?"

"Yes." Sam answers, narrowing her eyes. "You know that. Your little FBI friends arrested some of them."

"I know." Freddie says. "Don't remind me. They're trying to use me against them."

"How?" Sam looks up at him.

"Making me interview them." Freddie says roughly. "They have the right of silence, but they tried to use me to manipulate them."

Sam's eyes widened with terror. Oh, what if they were going to sentence her friends? The idea was so terrifying and horrible that Sam shut her eyes tight.

"You okay?" Freddie asks her.

"God, I have to get them out of there." Sam says, her voice breaking. "I have to get them out of there. I can't let them arrest them for this."

"What can we do?" Freddie asks simply.

"Find Severa, that's what." Sam growls.

"Who is Severa?" Freddie asks quizzically.

"She's the one who said no outside couples," Sam says. "Oh, and she's our leader."

"So that's who they're looking for." Freddie says.

"What?" Sam looks up at him.

"She's number one on the capture list," Freddie tells her. "They got pictures of her killing people."

"Severa's always been one to have fun with cameras." Sam's voice trails off. "So you haven't found her yet."

"No," Freddie says. "Not that I know of."

"Bummer." Sam says under her breath.

"You want her captured?" Freddie glances at her.

"She scares me." Sam says, her voice barely audible. "She kills the innocent. She kills anyone looks funny at her.

"Sam Puckett? Scared of someone?" Freddie begins to smile but Sam elbows him hard. "Ow!" he says, but then goes on, "If we find her, she'd definately be sentenced to death. They have actual proof."

"So she's probably hiding." Sam says rustily. "Coward."

They lay together in silence again, and Sam finds herself nearly falling asleep again. Not because she was tired, but probably because of lack of food and sleep the past couple days.

"You okay?" Freddie asks her. Sam attempts to form a coherent sentence but she's too dizzy. "When's the last time you ate anything?" Sam is barely able to shrug. Freddie stands up. "Hang on a sec." He leaves the room.

Sam, now alone, struggles to stay concious. Freddie's warmth is gone for now, at least. She tries to see if this is a dream. It has to be, right? She finally has Freddie back after all these years. But this only temporaily. Once he learns the truth, he'll want nothing to do with her.

But he still wants her even after she left. That's reason enough for him to never see her again. But he's still here. And Sam cherishes every moment of that, because she could never leave him. No matter what happens...she'll still always be there.

Freddie comes back with a plastic sandwich bag filled with lunch meat ham. This sends Sam over the edge and she inhales it, nearly eating the bag in the process. She remembers the last time she ate before that. She had two crackers two days ago. Oh, and a spoonful of peanut butter the day before that. She made out pretty well considering the conditions. But the ham... That brings her back to days where she would raid Spencer and Carly's house of all of their food. Good memories.

"Don't eat the bag," Freddie warns.

"Yeah, yeah." she mumbles. "Tried that once, didn't work out."

"When's the last time you've eaten?" Freddie presses.

Sam shrugs. At least she's strong enough to speak now. "Couple of days, I guess."

"You know," Freddie says. "You don't have to live this way."

"Yeah, I kinda do." Sam says roughly.

"Your clan is sunked." Freddie growls. "This is your time to break free of them. Turn your life around. Live your life like you're supposed to."

"I can't leave my friends," Sam insists.

"They can fix their lives too! Don't you get it? Your other members who got caught: they're screwed. You were lucky. You weren't captured yet. This is your time to fix everything. Start over." Freddie looks at her. "You _want_ to keep living this way?"

"No!" Sam hisses. "It's not that easy to just start over like you say!" Sam's voice softens for a second, and she looks at Freddie, almost smitten. "No matter how much I want to."

Freddie just sighs and looks at her. "Will you at least... Think about it?" Freddie asks her gently.

"If I must." Sam says, with her own sigh.

"Want more ham?" Freddie asks her.

Sam grasps his arm. _"Yes."_

Freddie smiles, stands up, and leaves the room again. Once alone, Sam lets herself think of a world where she doesn't have to fear certain death everyday by the hands of a Fatherhood or some other sleazy guy off the street. Where her and Freddie could just focus on themselves. It wasn't such a bad idea.

But of course, it happens again.

She hears the five-note whistle. Her eyes widen in pleasure at the thought of Ultraviolet and X-Rated finding their way to her. Learning that they're okay.

Then her face falls. What if it was them? They'd probably want her to come back. Of course they'd want her to come back. They'd go back to living the same lie. The same hiding. That wasn't what Sam wanted. That wasn't what Freddie wanted. And after last night, Sam is beginning to realize that maybe _they _was what really mattered.

Sam still sneaks out the back door near his bedroom. She'll come back. She couldn't leave Freddie again. Never, ever again. But she needed to see who it was. She peers out, now on the little padio stories in the air of his apartment. Whoever came for her must have climbed up all the way.

Sam sees no one. She grows wary and steps back. "Who's there?" she calls out.

Someone jumps from the apartment above, and Sam presses against the closed door. Even in the early dawn air, she can make out the tall, lean figure.

"Well, Goldielocks." The icy voice says. "No surprise here, eh?"

"You could say that again"-Sam says evenly-"Severa."

** (A/N: Sorry it took me FOREVER to update. Was super busy. Yeah. Thanks for the reviews, again. If there's anything you would like to see in this fanfic, tell me so, cause I'm curious and this fanfic feels like it's going in circles *shrugs*)**


	9. Chapter 9: Wicked Old Witch

(Sam's POV)

"I really did miss you." Sam tells the person who she refurres to as "the wicked old bitch" gleefully. "I was _so_ worried you got caught."

"Give me some credit." Severa snaps. "You think I'd let them take me down?"

"You musta been at the right place and the right time." Sam muses.

Severa's dark black hoodie ripples. "Well, how have you been holding up, Goldielocks? Not so well, I can see."

Sam stiffens, straightening her shoulders. Her body was racked, bruises covering every bit of her, her hair was carelessly curled and extremely matted with blood, and she hasn't eaten in so long. She looked beaten up and injured. She knew that.

"Well," Sam says, sarcasm dripping off her voice. "It's been a hard couple of days for everyone lately. But what about you, Severa? You're looking well."

Severa's colorless eyes narrowed. "Oh, just fine. Because I can handle myself, unlike you."

"To be honest," Sam chuckles. "I've been doing fairly well, given my conditions."

"Oh, is something troubling you?" Severa asks sweetly.

"Actually, nothing." Sam says cheerfully. "Because the Comeback is finally over."

"What?" Severa blinks. "Over? Oh, Goldielocks, just because our meeting place is done for and a few of our members are behind bars doesn't mean a thing."

"A few?" Sam snaps. "Practically all."

"The Comebacks will never end." Severa hisses. "So, you're just going to _abandon _us?" Severa's extremely pale hand tightens around her waist. She must have a knife close. "Because you know what happens to members who leave."

"Well, according to the Comeback handbook." Sam says, blinking her eyelashes obnoxiously. "They're supposed to be terminated. But so many members have left and claimed to be dead."

"Then they left." Severa shrugs. "But if they're found, they'll be killed." She looks at Sam with a questioning look. "So, are you leaving or not?" Her hand tightens even more around her belt. "Because I can list you as one of the betrayers now."

Sam just grins. "Oh?" She says. "I'm the one who's leaving? You're the one who abandoned everyone to get locked up."

Severa ignores this. "Where are Ultraviolet and X-Rated?"

"God knows." Sam shrugs.

"Nah, I think you know." Severa lowers her head. "Come on, Goldielocks. Don't stick around here. I know what you're doing."

"No, you don't." Sam snaps. "You don't know anything."

"Goldielocks, you and I, we could go places. I'm sick and tired of shit always happening to the Comebacks and not to the Fatherhood. So here's what we're going to do."

"What?" Sam narrows her eyes.

"What do we have to lose, now that the Comeback's been destroyed from the inside? You and I, we're going to go over there and start blowing them away."

"What do you mean?"

"We're going to assassinate the leaders of the Fatherhoods."

Sam's eyes widen and she quivers in anticipation. She's been waiting for that moment, for Severa to say that to her, since she was seven. "You legit?"

"What do we have to lose?" Severa says simply. "We can wipe the Aftermath off the world forever."

Sam considers this. "Listen, I can't do this at the moment. I need to go back inside. Just meet me later, okay?"

"Where?" Severa crosses her skinny white arms over her chest.

Sam knew what Severa was plotting. "Outside of Seattle. By the place with the vines. You know where I'm talking about?"

"Of course, of course." Severa begins backing up. She dips her head. "Goldielocks."

"Severa." Sam dips her head as well. Severa climbs back down the apartment, her whispy hair disappearing. Even when she's gone, she lets out the five-note whistle. Sam answers back, then slips back inside.

Of course, since nothing is easy for the young blonde, Freddie is shouting her name. "Sam! Where the hell are you?"

"Shh!" Sam hisses at him. She finds him looking around the house. "I didn't leave. But we have an issue."

"What is it?" Freddie's round brown eyes bore into her.

"Severa was just there." Sam whispers.

"What?" Freddie's eyes widen. "Is she still there?"

"No, no, she left." Sam pulls Freddie closer. "But we have an issue."

"What kind of issue?" Freddie asks.

"Look, she's telling me that she's going to assissinate the Aftermath." Sam tells Freddie. "The Aftermath is the small group of people that rule the Fatherhood. Anyway, she's telling me she wants to kill all of them, but it's a trap." Sam looks at him.

"A trap?" He echoes.

"She's tellin' me to meet her right outside of Seattle as if I was stupid. So we can 'talk about' the plan." Sam rolls her eyes.

"How is that a trap?" Freddie says. Of course. It's been three years, and Freddie's still as critical as you can possibly get.

"Don't you get it?" Sam grasps Freddie shoulders, her eyes popping wide. "If I go over to meet her, Severa is going to kill me!"

_Flashback:_

_ (Ultraviolet's POV) December 16, 2010 2:32 A.M._

_ "Fuck the cold," Ultraviolet mutters as she shuffles her hoodie on. "I hate this."_

_ "Suck it up." X-Rated teases. Ultraviolet watches as X-Rated bounds up ahead, jumping into a snowdrift. X-Rated has always loved the snow. He would play and romp in it for hours. Goldielocks leaps after him, and they scrabble in a playfight._

_ Ultraviolet watches the two fondly. They were handfuls, weren't they? X-Rated playfully shoves Goldielocks's face into the snow, and she recoils and throws a snowball at his face._

_ "Very mature, you two." Ultraviolet folds her arms over her chest._

_ X-Rated and Goldielocks exchange a look, then they both grab Ultraviolet's legs. She falls into the powdery cold and they began throwing snow on her._

_ "Stop it!" Ultraviolet's words ended in a laugh. "Stop! It's so cold!"_

_ She scrambles out of their grasp. She felt as though her face and hands were frozen. She laughs and said, "Again. Very mature. Now come on, we have to head to the safe zone."_

_ "Yeah, yeah." X-Rated stands up and brushes the clumps of snow out of his tufty hair. "God forbid we have fun, right?"_

_ "No, God forbid we freeze to death before we get to the safe zone!" Ultraviolet flashes back._

_ Goldielocks rolls her eyes and walks ahead. Ultraviolet joins her, realizing that they are out in 16 degree weather and are only wearing jeans and thin hoodies. Goldielocks wasn't bothered by it, though._

_ The sky was completely black, but the moon was full and was shining down on the snow, making it glisten in the darkness. X-Rated keeps up with them, but Ultraviolet finds the snow sticking to her thin jeans and wearing her down. X-Rated grasps her shoulder and helps her up, but then Ultraviolet feels the electrity at his touch and moves away. _Too soon,_ she murmurs silently._

_ In the dark surrounding, all that was seen was the glowing white snow, and the barely visable shapes of Goldielocks and X-Rated. The sounds of the thick, whirling snow that the wind was blowing swirled around them, hitting them in their unprotected faces. Ultraviolet's chest heaves as she breathes, just as X-Rated and Goldielocks's were. When they breathed in, they were were breathing in 40% hair and 60% snow. _

_ Suddenly, a shape began running towards them. Within seconds, a boy that was about seventeen or eighteen years old runs towards them and collaspes into X-Rated's arms. Ultraviolet recognizes them immediately. It was one of their fellow Comebacks, Flashflood._

_ The dirty blonde headed guy's chest was heaving, and half-frozen tears were falling down his face. "I can't...I can't...!"_

_ "Flashflood, what's the matter?" Goldielocks demands._

_ "Come on, he's hyperventilating." X-Rated growls. "Let's get him out of the snow."_

_ Goldielocks helps drag the bedraggled young man into an abandoned alleyway. _ At least he's out of the wind now,_ Ultraviolet thinks to herself._ _Goldielocks is half-clinging to him, her blue eyes wide with fear. Ultraviolet knows that Goldielocks and Flashflood used to date when they were younger. But, ever since Goldielocks gained eyes for that nerdy kid she does a webshow with..._

_ "Flashflood?" X-Rated began pumping Flashflood's chest. The delirious young guy was wearing no more than boxers and a tanktop. "Flashflood, wake up!"_

_ Flashflood's brown eyes snap open, and he begins to struggle. "Oh, no..." He murmurs. His voice rises to a shriek. "Oh, God no! You found me!"_

_ "Flashflood, calm down." Ultraviolet orders. "Tell us what happened."_

_ But Flashflood was already panicking. "I-I didn't try to leave!" he wails. "You know I didn't. She's going to be mad, isn't she? Severa-!" He begins to sob. "I didn't do anything wrong! I promise!"_

_ "Flashflood, just tell us what's going on." X-Rated says, his deep voice sounding commanding and superifical. "We will help you if you do."_

_ Flashflood is hysterical now, and is wailing his head off. Suddenly, Goldielocks sits back, her eyebrows raising._

_ "It was you." She says quietly. "You're actually going to do it?"_

_ "I started running." Flashflood coughs, his teary brown eyes trained on Goldielocks. "I-I've been running for a while... Oh God. I'm in deep shit, aren't I? I've gone too far." His hand locks around Goldielocks's wrist. "She's going to kill me!"_

_ "You're trying to leave the Comeback?" X-Rated echoes._

_ "I've wasted years here." Flashflood says bitterly. "I need to turn things around. Reinvent myself. I can't do this anymore, guys."_

_ "You know what they'll do to you if they catch you." Ultraviolet says. She makes a cutting motion towards her neck._

_ "I know, I know." Flashflood whimpers. "But I can't take it anymore. Everyday, we face the threat of death. We can die at any time. Call me a coward if you want, but I want to live a full life. I want to turn it around."_

_ "We found you..." Ultraviolet begins slowly. "As a confused kid who just got out of juvy for plotting a manslaughter. You had no where to go. We welcomed you as one of our own. And you're going to leave?"_

_ "I don't care if you think I'm a coward." Flashflood murmurs. "I know I am. But I have to leave." He brushes his snow-covered hair out of his forehead. "Are you going to kill me?"_

_ Ultraviolet exchanges glances with X-Rated and Goldielocks. She knew that it was the rules to kill Flashflood for this. He was abandoning the Comeback. That was against the rules. They should just flip him over, exposing her neck, and rip the knife against his throat. That was the rules. Weren't they entitled to this._

_ Goldielocks looked panicked as her icy gaze flitted to Ultraviolet and X-Rated. Ultraviolet knew how she must be feeling. She dated Flashflood. How could she just watch him die?_

_ "No." Ultraviolet suddenly says. She is surprised by the intensity of her voice. "We are not going to kill you."_

_ Goldielocks looks surprised, her eyebrows raised. X-Rated looks angry for a second, but his expression softens._

_ "She's right." X-Rated murmurs. "We can't kill you for this."_

_ Flashflood looks very small, pressing against the cold stone like a child. Ultraviolet knew he was just a former deliquent. But this hopeless, sobbing pile of a lost soul looked anything but dangerous._

_ "We'll say we haven't heard from you." Goldielocks says quietly. "It's a cold night. The odds of you freezing to death out here are very likely."_

_ "But," Ultraviolet snaps. "You get your ass out of here. Get out of Seattle. We don't want to see you ever again."_

_ "If we see you again, we _will_ kill you." X-Rated threatens. "Just get out of Seattle now. By morning, I want to see you out of there."_

_ Flashflood just nods, entranced by every word._

_ "Here, take this." Goldielocks pulls a twenty of her bra and hands it to him. "Now, get out of here."_

_ Flashflood entangles in a hug with Goldielocks, and then attempts to hug both Ultraviolet and X-Rated. But they shy off. "Just get out of here." Ultraviolet says icily. Just because they weren't going to kill him, it didn't mean they respected him at all. Why bother enrolling in an assiassnation organization if they would just chicken out?_

_ Flashflood scrambles to his feet and quickly runs into the swirling snow. Within seconds his disappears into the night._

_ And that's the last Ultraviolet sees of him._


	10. Chapter 10: Revenge

(Freddie's POV)

"She...would..._kill you?_" Freddie echoes.

"Yes, Freddie. She knows I'm with you. She knows I'm leaving the Comebacks. She knows all of it!" Sam slumps to the bed, covering her face. "Oh God. Why did I say to meet at the outskirts of Seattle? I could be well out of Seattle in just an hour."

"Okay..." Freddie is trying to process all of this. "If she's going to be at the outskirts of Seattle...I could just send the FBI over there."

"She's too clever than that." Sam says rustily. "She's probably expecting that."

Freddie goes silent. Finally, he says, "Look, you're exhausted. You have blood splattered all over you. You can hardly stand up. Go take a shower and then go back to sleep okay?"

Sam looks at him emptily, and Freddie says with annoyance, "You're sick. Come on. Just take care of yourself."

Sam blinks, then nods. "Okay. I will." She stands up stiffly and walks to his bathroom. Freddie lays down on the bed and presses his hand to his forehead.

Well, this sucks.

Seattle's top wanted killer is not only on the loose, but she wanted to kill the one he loves as well.

Can't get much saltier than that.

He presses his palm to his forehead and focuses on the sound of the shower, and he watches the early dawn air glow brighter and brighter. He yawns. He's exhausted. When's the last time he actually got to sleep a full night? It must have been a while, because-

The doorbell rings. His head snaps up. He could even hear Sam stiffen. "Who's that?"

"Don't know. Shut off the water." Freddie stands up and he hears Sam obey.

"Hold on, lemme get my knife." Sam shuffles out of the shower, whipping a towel over her and joining him.

"Just wait in my bedroom." Freddie orders, walking swiftly towards his door.

"But what if-" Sam begins.

"Just do as I say!" Freddie wasn't in the mood. He was paranoid now that if he opened the door, a trained assassin would be there and just kill him. Given the stats, that's probably what's going to happen. He glances through his peephole and his head, which was tense and fearful, goes dizzy with relief.

It was Lindsay. He easily opens the door, and the girl's hazel eyes snap open. "Freddie!" She gasps. "Oh, you're okay!"

"Of course I am." Freddie was confused. Why wouldn't he be okay? "What's up? Why are you here?"

"Freddie, everyone has been looking for you!" Lindsay tells him. "You missed _days_ of work, with no explanation, and this is a cruical time to miss work as it is!"

Freddie realizes this and his face pales. Oh, he wasn't going to get fired, was he? "I..." he gets out. "A family member was gravely ill. I-I couldn't come in." He felt this sinking feeling. He really blew it this time, didn't he? "Am I fired?"

"No, but Mr. Mitchell's pretty ticked. He says you have to be in work today or you are fired." Lindsay replies.

Freddie checks the clock. It was 6:17 A.M. Work starts at 12. "I'll be there." Freddie mumbles. "I promise."

Lindsay ducks her head, and right before he shuts the door, she says, "Oh, and Freddie..."

"Yes?" Freddie looks at her.

"...I was worried." Lindsay confesses. "No one could get ahold of you. Me, Brad, everyone in the tech department..."

"I'm sorry." Freddie says to her. "It was really important."

Lindsay looks like she wants to say more, but being the submissive young woman she was, she just steps back and bows her head as Freddie closes the door.

He heads back to his room. Sam managed to shuffle her bloody clothes back on, and her dark blonde curls were wet and clinging to her head.

"Who was that?" Sam asks him.

"A coworker." Freddie tells her. "I'm in trouble. I haven't been to work. I need to go there today."

"So you can sentence more of my friends?" Sam spits at him.

Freddie lets himself remain calm. "You know I wouldn't do that. I'm trying to stop it, okay? I just need time."

Sam falls back onto her bed, sighing so loud that it made her eyelashes flutter. "So, this coworker of yours..." She looks up at him. "Who is she?"

"Lindsay." He replies. "She works as a secretary for the Tech department. Good friends of me and Brad."

Sam focuses on the ceiling, her blue eyes trained on the swirls of white. "She sounded worried."

Freddie suddenly understands what he's been given. "Yeaup." He stretches out the word. "Very worried. It's a shame I had to stress her out."

He can see Sam's jaw tighten and he feels a twinge of sastification.

Silence.

Finally, after about two minutes of silence, Sam says roughly, "So, is she like your girlfriend or what?"

"Nah." Freddie says, leaning back, feeling on top of the world. "She's just a friend. Besides, I'm already married."

That had a winning reaction. Sam has always had a good poker face while Freddie's always failed, but the disbelief and shock was clear on her face. "What? You are?" Is her gasp.

"Nooo." Freddie answers with a chuckle. "But I had you going, didn't I?"

Sam shoves his shoulder. "Don't do that again."

"But why?" Freddie asks simply.

Sam just shrugs. "Too soon?" She says calmly.

Freddie goes silent.

"Think about it." Sam shifts herself upward. "It's been three years. We're both very confused, and I know you're frustrated. But...joking about relationships with each other is just...too soon, you know?"

"I know you're not going to tell me anything _yet_," Freddie tells Sam. "But honestly...how bad can the truth actually be? Is it so horrifyingly bad that it was really worth leaving me like that? Leaving me broken-hearted? Whatever it was...I could have handled it."

Sam blinks, and seems to try to be thinking of something to say. "So, you want me to answer on a scale of 1-10?"

"That works." Freddie says.

"Eight hundred million billion." Sam answers, and leaves it at that.

_Flashback:_

_ (Matt's POV) March 19th, 2015 1:37 A.M._

_ Matt remembered, being so young, sitting in front of the tv with an earnest look on his face. Watching all sorts of movies and cartoons. He was young: only twenty-three. He had his whole life ahead of him. No, that wasn't true. He wasted most of it in juvy and in a gang. But that's besides the point._

_ He remembered watching the tv shows, watching the main hero go on an epic quest of epic proportions. He would grow up and be a man, and due to this life-changing quest, he finally found out who he was. The transition from boy to man. That's what it was._

_ But Matt never went on a quest._

_ He might as well still be a kid. Nothing ever destroyed the barrier between boy and man for him. He's just a big kid. That's all._

_ He pops the bottle of a Mike's Hard Lemonade, and almost feels sick at the sweet taste. He'd prefer stone-cold liquor, the delicious bitterness of it all. Mike's Hard Lemonade is for teenagers who want to look cool by drinking. Oh well. It's all he has._

_ He looks around his dirty apartment. This isn't a good place to live. Anyone with their right mind could see that. The apartment was already in pretty bad shape. On top of that, he got the worst room, right by the basement of it. Oh well. What's he going to do?_

_ He drinks more of the aclohol and feels that same, stinging sensation. His mind wanders to the closest city to here: Seattle. He should probably head back someday._

_ HA HA HA. Is he crazy? He takes one step into Seattle and he dies. Simple as that._

_ He feels his heart go sick so he decides to clear his head. He sets his drink down on a filthy table and slips out of his apartment, tripping over some garbage as he does so. He heads down the stone steps that lead to the basement._

_ The apartment itself is not that warm, but the basement is completely unheated. Hardly anything is in the complete stone room that seems to stretch on for a while. He lets out a breath, knowing it was frozen but not being able to see anything. He can tell by the bitter cold, the way he was wearing absolutely nothing except a dirty tanktop and shorts that might as well be considered boxers, as well as no shoes._

_ That's right. Soak in the bitterness._

_ He lights his lighter and looks around. Everything is stone down here. He hadn't bothered to explore the pathways that lead out of this rock prison. He knew they could only lead to no good._

_ He continues to walk on the bare stone, sucking the warmth out of him. The cold air was beginning to make him feel dizzy but he didn't care. He didn't care at all._

_ He hears footsteps approaching, and fear strikes into his heart. He quickly puts the lighter out and hides behind a stone pillar. He hears some voices coming, and he tries to distunigsh them._

_ "We've come too far." It sounded like a young man's voice. "Can we go back?"_

_ "Stop it, pansy." The other one, about the same age, snaps. "It's freezing out there. We need to get out of the cold."_

_ "This isn't much better." The last one, also the oldest sounding, says._

_ The second voice storms upward, searching in the darkness. He stupidly crashes into a trashcan near the wall. Matt grimaces at their stupidity. _If I was who I was a few years ago,_ Matt thinks to himself. _They'd be dead. All three of them.

_The guy pulls the empty trashcan aside and Matt can hear rustling. Suddenly, a match is lit, and Matt can see the guy's face. He's smaller-built with bleach blonde hair and he's wearing a thin hoodie. He lets the match fall into the trashcan and a small fire blooms. The three huddle around the trashcan for warmth. Matt can see their battle-scarred faces and it gives him nostaliga._

_ "Why are we hiding, anyway?" The older guy, with a thick scar over his forehead, growls. "It was them who got busted, not us."_

_ "The fall of the Comeback empire effected us all." The blonde guy spat. Matt's hair goes stiff and he could feel the smaller hairs rising on his arms and neck. "They know about us, too, you know. They could bust us just as easily."_

_ The fall of the Comeback?_

_ That is something Matt has always wanted to hear, but now he fears for the welfare of the others in the Comeback. They were once his family. But...if they're caught like this guy says they are..._

_ "Even so..." The older guy says rustily. "I don't see why treking into the unknown is going to help us."_

_ "Look." The younger guy with short, dark hair says warily. . "I know we swore loyalty to the Fatherhood, but this is getting too freaky. What if we get caught? Our lives are ruined."_

_ They're _Fatherhoods?_ Matt grips his pocket._

_ "Oh, so you want to leave?" The blonde guy sneers at the other guy. "Be a pansy and run off? I should just kill you now."_

_ "I'm not going to leave!" The dark haired guy almost screams. "I promise!"_

_ "Shh!" The older guy shoves him hard. "You might be heard!"_

You already are being heard! _Matt hisses to himself._

_ "What about your family in the Fatherhood? You want to leave them behind, too?" The blonde guy challenges._

_ "No! No! No!" The dark haired guy presses his hands to his ears._

_ "Calm it, Cashmere." The older guy tells the blonde guy sternly. "As if you're one to talk about abandoning family."_

_ "What's that supposed to mean?" Cashmere rounds on the older guy._

_ "It means, Windmill gave birth to your kid a few days ago and you have zero connection to him." The man crosses his bony arms over his chest._

_ "Oh really?" Cashmere sneers. "Well, we both know that Windmill has zero mothering ability so he will probably die out in the cold. Second, it was a one night stand and nothing more. Three, I have a girlfriend now. Don't come crying to me about family."_

_ "I watched the kids I fathered die by the hands of Comebacks. I watched one get mauled by dogs. Don't come to me whining about fatherhood when you caused the pain for yourself. It's your own fault." The man growls back._

_ Matt searches in his pocket. He feels the knife he always carries. Oh God, he has it with him, right? He feels it and his heart almost gives out with relief. The bottle._

_ He gently pours some of the neon blue liquid onto his napkin and begins to stealthly approach. Oh, thank God he could walk like a cat. He slowly and slowly comes closer before whistling one long, loud note._

_ The three jump like startled cats. The dark-haired young one immediately darts off into the darkness, causing him to knock over the trashcan and trip the blonde one up. The elderly one follows easily. Right before Cashmere could stand up, Matt leaps on top of him and presses the napkin to his nose. He trashes beneath him until the effects of the chloroform seep in._

_ Pwned._

_ Cashmere falls limp and Matt quickly heads back up the stairs. He searches through the dirty contents of his room until he finds his emergency kit. He picks up the neetle and heads back downstairs. He injects the sedative drug into Cashmere's bloodsteam. _He won't wake up for a long while,_ Matt thinks._

_ He takes a thin rope and ties Cashmere to one of the stone pillars. _Those two will think he's dead_, Matt thinks. They'll think whomever blew the whistle would have killed him, and they won't dare come back. Oh well._

_ He's not going to kill Cashmere yet. He remembers the hell the Fatherhoods gave him. _Don't worry,_ Cashmere sneers. _I'll drag it out for ya.

_ Maybe he's finally doing justice for running away.  
><em> 


	11. Chapter 11: I Missed You

(Sam's POV)

"Where are you taking me?" Sam protests as Freddie leads her out of the apartment building. "You're starting to scare me."

"Get over yourself." Freddie smirks. "You're gonna love this."

"I told you, I needed to find my friends. How long's this gonna take?" Sam mutters.

"It'll be worth it." Freddie says. "I promise."

His hands go to her eyes, and she flinches. Her assassin senses warn her of danger. "Hey-Hey-what are you doing?"

"Calm it." He growls. "It's a surprise."

As the early dawn breaks through, Sam feels her feet go over a mixture of grass, sand, and dirt. She could smell deadened fires, as well as swirling dust. They were heading out, to some kind of landscape beyond his apartment.

"You're really starting to freak me out." Sam whimpers. "Please tell me."

"Open your eyes."

Sam opens her eyes and sees Freddie grinning at her. He gestures towards a chain link fence that was rusted over and half-broken. She was right; the ground was unsettled with sand and grass. She looks over at him. "What is this?"

"He's really missed you." Freddie says fondly. "I should've taken him somewhere more responsible...but I'd miss him too much."

"What?" Sam blinks. "What are you talking about?"

Freddie whistles. It's not the signature five-note whistle; it's just one simple one. A few seconds go by, and then Sam can hear it. Huge footsteps running at her. She tenses up, ready to run from a trap. But then she realizes who the pursuer is, and she loses it.

_"Bacon!"_ She screams, and the dog crashes into the gate. His brown-splashed paws dig to get under the ripped, damaged fence. Sam falls to her knees, and Bacon breaks through the fence. Sam wraps her arms around her dog's neck, pressing him against her.

"Your mom wouldn't feed him, after you left. I had to take him; you know I couldn't leave him." Freddie says. "A retired man lives back there. His property: That's why this place is a mess. Anyway, he has a few dogs in that gate. I'm surprised he took in a pitbull." Freddie gently strokes Bacon's ears. "I knew I should have given him up for adoption. This isn't a real home. He's exposed to the elements. But…I couldn't leave him somewhere else."

"I missed him." Sam murmurs, letting Bacon lick her face. "I missed my puppy." She stops and stares at Freddie, her heart hurting. "I missed you more."

"I was hoping you missed me more than a dog." Freddie manages to suppress a chuckle.

Sam focuses her eyes on Bacon, trying not to let her true emotions show.

"He really missed you." Freddie admits. "I tried to visit him as much as I could. But he missed his blondie." He shifts upward and crosses his arms over his chest. "Just as everyone did."

Sam stares at him.

"Just as I did." He gets out.

Sam hangs her head. She felt so shameful for leaving; more than anyone could ever know. But right now, she thinks of everyone who was truly affected. Freddie. Melanie. Carly. Spencer. Her face burns in shame and regret.

Freddie bends down beside her, and then says, very softly, "Just as I do."

Sam buries her chin in her hands. "I…I was justifiable to do what I did." Sam coughs out. "But…it was wrong."

"Yes, it was." Freddie snickers. "And it always will be, no matter what you did." He gently plays with one of her tufted curls. "But you know, if you told me, I'd get some better understanding." He says. "Maybe even forgive you."

"No, it'd have the opposite effect." Sam says, turning away. "Trust me."

"You don't know that…" Freddie says warily.

"There's no keeping any truth from someone like you. You'd hunt me down till the end of the world." Sam mutters.

"Yeah, I would." Freddie answers. "But that's okay."

"You think so?" Sam looks up at him.

"Heh, no." Freddie chuckles. "So where are you going now?"

Sam stands up stiffly. "Well, I need to find out where Ultraviolet and X-Rated are." Sam looks at the ground. "And once I find them…I-I don't know."

"You know," Freddie says. "Just because they have your name and face on that file, they aren't really looking for you in particular. They're mostly after Severa. You…You can still make it."

"I think it's too late for me." Sam whispers.

"No, it isn't." Freddie insists. "Sam, gang members and all that can switch their lives around. You can too."

"How many times do I have to tell you? It isn't a gang!" Sam hisses.

"What does it matter at this point?" Freddie snaps.

"E-Everything." Sam slides back down to the ground. Bacon tries to lick her face, but she hardly acknowledges it. "We aren't like gangs, and it is exactly that reason for why I can't leave. If I did leave, and found you again… I'll have to live with the fear of them finding us. And me not being able to save the day again…" She trails off and falls silent.

Freddie is silent for a long time. Finally he says, "Sam. You're powerful and brave and I guess you saved me before. But it's different now. Times have changed." He leans down next to her. He gently rubs Bacon's ears, trying to distract himself. "Sometimes you need to slow yourself down. You can't save everyone, Puckett."

"I can try." Sam whispers.

"Tell you what." Freddie says. "You go and find your friends. You come back to my place. I can let you guys stay there for a day and we'll figure it out."

"Figure what out?" Sam looks up at him.

"How we're going to make sure you three stay alive." Freddie says stiffly. "Okay?"

"Okay." Sam says.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"You'll come back?" Freddie says suddenly.

Sam holds out her arms and they entangle in a hug. Sam closes her eyes and breathes him in. If she could forget everything, maybe she could be back to the times when they were dating. When all of this wasn't part of it. When it was just them…

She does it again. She digs herself into that deeper hole in which they hardly ever escape. She stands on tiptoe again—when did the boy get so tall?—and kisses his mouth again. Well, techincally he kissed her, but details were becoming irrelevant by now. After about seven seconds, it ends. Sam moves her mouth to nuzzle his neck.

"I promise." She murmurs against his skin. They pull apart and exchange a nod. Freddie looks at for a moment, the emotions running through his eyes saying everything and saying nothing.

"Be careful." He warns.

"Hardly." Sam gives Bacon one last hug before walking back out into the cold, her face to the wind.

(X-Rated's POV)

X-Rated toys with a black marker he found in their motel. "You know," He smirks at Ultraviolet. "We're going to need disguises. Might as well draw us some fake moustaches now."

"Don't make me kick you." Ultraviolet rolls her eyes. She slips outside, into the cold, and X-Rated follows her. "Should we go look for Goldielocks?"

"Yeah, we should." X-Rated says, then glances downward. "Can we stop at a gas station first?"

"Why?" Ultraviolet looks at him.

"We're out of peanut butter." X-Rated holds up the empty jar. "And I'm starving."

Ultraviolet rolls her eyes again. X-Rated reflects on his growing awareness that Ultraviolet seems to be amused or annoyed with anything he does. He would normally be irritated with this, but he usually isn't. He guesses that it's just another thing he lets her get away with.

"C'mon, Violet." X-Rated nudges her shoulder. "You're starving too."

"You have a point." She rolls her eyes again. One of these days, X-Rated knows that her eyes will simply pop out of her head. "Come on, let's kick it."

Both of them head out into the cold and the ice. X-Rated sees a thin layer of snow on the ground, and he realizes that it snowed last night. The slippery kind too, the kind that creates black ice. He goes over all the safety precautions that go along with fresh snowfall. Being an assassin requires this kind of effort.

"Don't slip." He warns Ultraviolet. She was even more careful than he was; there was no reason to warn her. She has it down. Still, he gets a satisfied feeling by telling her that.

He heard Ultraviolet give away her biggest secret to Goldielocks. He had a vicious cold then; how could they believe that he slept with it? No, he heard her say it. She loves him. Well, maybe not love. Maybe some kind of tortured affection.

X-Rated doesn't like facing things head on. Especially emotional things. He doesn't know if he likes her back. He remembers all of the times they spent together, playing, killing, enjoying time while they rebel against the world. Well, maybe he could like her. But he has no time to ponder it.

At the moment, he'll humor her for now. Let her do as she wishes. He learned that doing that for girls usually works.

They get to a half-abandoned gas station. Ultraviolet pulls out a twenty. "Pick out ten dollars of what you want and let's split."

"Can't we just steal it?" X-Rated asks.

"We need to lay low!" Ultraviolet scoffs. "Are you insane? Do you really want us to get locked up? We need to be careful!"

"Damn, girl." X-Rated mutters.

They slip inside. X-Rated sees that the lights were flickering and the place looked half-dead. Still, there is someone at the counter, so they go on ahead.

"I need something with peanut butter in them." X-Rated declares. "Reese's or something."

"Try something healthier, like these." Ultraviolet hands him those orange crackers with the slabs of peanut butter in the middle.

"Kay, mom." X-Rated rolls his eyes.

X-Rated continues to grab things, his eyes wandering to the section of refrigerated items. He thinks about maybe grabbing a bottle of milk or an energy drink to keep them up. But then his eyes wander to the more appealing section of alcohol and he smirks at Ultraviolet.

"Don't even think about it." She hisses. "You know we can't get wasted at this time! Do you remember how crucial this is?"

"Unfortunately." X-Rated mutters. "Fine. I'll grab a bottle of milk or something."

He walks over to the refrigerated section and pulls out the bottle. He turns his head and he sees someone beside him. Someone pulling out bottles and bottles of liquor. He looks at the guy next to him.

The guy had scruffy, unkempt blonde hair. X-Rated could see scars on his hands, but that's the only part of his body beside his face that was showing.

The guy yanks his head around and hisses, "Mind your own—"

X-Rated's jaw drops. And the guy's does, too. They stare at each other, frozen in shock.

"Flashflood?" X-Rated gasps.

Flashflood lets a liquor bottle drop, letting the glass shatter.

"X-Rated, did you break something _again_?" Ultraviolet's voice sounds from far away.

Flashflood was about to run, but X-Rated grabs his wrist. "What are you doing here?"

"X-X-X-Rated…!" Flashflood was trembling now from shock.

"Why didn't you leave Seattle?" X-Rated hisses. "Why are you here?"

Ultraviolet heads over to them, and then her jaw drops. The blood drains away from her already-pale face.

"Flashflood." She whispers. "My God, I thought we'd never see you again!"

X-Rated wonders why the store owner hasn't come to confront them yet, but he guesses that because the place is so run down, the owner doesn't care.

Flashflood was shaking from head to toe. "Look-k-k, I'm here b-because I found someb-body. Well, n-not found. I caught someone…"

"Who?" Ultraviolet and X-Rated demand together.

"A F-Fatherhood. Are you still a-after them?"

X-Rated stares at him. "You captured a Fatherhood?"

"He wandered into my apartment basement." Flashflood swallows. "I got him knocked out on 76% chloroform. I know you'd always recommend 100%, but I-I remember Goldielocks tellin' me that mixing in some saline would help it last l-longer…"

X-Rated and Ultraviolet watch Flashflood with narrowed eyes, not knowing what to trust.

"Guys, w-what's happening?" Flashflood whimpers. "The reason I caught him was because…he said something about the Comebacks falling under."

"It's a long story." Ultraviolet says briskly. "So, this Fatherhood prisoner. Are you going to kill him?"

"I-I was, after I learned some info." Flashflood looks at the ground. "Are you going to kill _me_?"

They don't respond. Ultraviolet looks at X-Rated and they exchange the silent message. "Show us the prisoner." X-Rated says. They might as well figure out who betrayed the Comebacks. Maybe the Fatherhoods gave them away.

"Follow me." Flashflood says, and he leads them out of the gas station.


	12. Chapter 12: The Runaway

(Ultraviolet's POV)

Ultraviolet has her knife out as she walks with X-Rated and Flashflood.

"I promise," Flashflood murmurs. "I am not a traitor. I wouldn't do anything to you guys."

"I'm not putting the knife away." Is all Ultraviolet says.

"Same here." X-Rated says, gesturing to his own knife. "So as long as you keep your distance…"

"I am not going to try anything bad." Flashflood says quietly.

"And why should we believe you?" Ultraviolet spits out.

"I never wronged you." Flashflood tells them.

"You left the Comeback."

"And they are doing so well, I hear." That drives Ultraviolet over the edge. She leaps onto him and pulls the knife out. She feels X-Rated's arms wrap around her waist.

"Stop it! Lemme do it!" She hisses, scrabbling for Flashflood's throat.

"It's not worth it! Come on, V." X-Rated pulls her up, gripping her shoulders tightly. "We need to see this Fatherhood. We need to know the truth."

Ultraviolet glares at Flashflood, who was still lying on the floor. She shudders when she sees his eyes. His eyes used to be brown. Now one was ice-blue and the other was too dark to distinguish the pupil from the iris.

"Whatever." Ultraviolet growls. She pulls away from X-Rated and continues to walk. "This better be worth it."

They wordlessly continue to walk on. Ultraviolet debates on killing Flashflood after he shows them the prisoner. She hated Flashflood; he was a coward who ran away. But maybe there's an underlying reason for why she hated him.

He was exactly the same as he was before he ran away. Maybe a bit more bitter, but not much. She was hoping to either find him dead or find him living a better life. It makes her think that no matter how far you run, you'll never escape the organization.

They arrive into a run-down apartment. "Down here," Flashflood says softly. "In my apartment."

Ultraviolet looks at him, exasperated. "You really expect us to go down there?"

"I had to hide him somewhere!" Flashflood protests.

"Don't worry." Ultraviolet feels X-Rated's hand on her shoulder. "It's two against one."

"I told you, I am not the ene—" Flashflood is cut off by someone's voice.

"V! X!" Ultraviolet whips around and sees the rush of blonde curls run towards them.

"Goldielocks!" X-Rated calls out. Ultraviolet feels relief wash over her until she can feel it in her knees.

Goldielocks's blue eyes are filled with relief, but then they fall upon Flashflood. Almost immediately, the relief turns to shock and then hatred.

_"You!"_ It comes out more of a demonic hiss then it does an actual word. And with that, Goldielocks whips out a knife from her belt, and leaps onto Flashflood.

Before Ultraviolet could react, X-Rated wraps his arms around Goldielocks's waist in the same way he had done for Ultraviolet.

"No! Let me do it!" Goldielocks hisses.

"What is the matter with you?" Ultraviolet gasps. Goldielocks and Flashflood were very close before he left. And she took his betrayal well. Why is she trying to kill him.

"He," Goldielocks spits out, pointing at Flashflood, who was staring back with wide eyes. "He ruined everything!"

"Oh, it's my fault?" Flashflood hisses at her.

"Yeah, kinda!" Goldielocks snarls.

"Wait, what happened?" Ultraviolet demands.

Flashflood's multicolored eyes dart to Goldielocks. "They don't know?"

Ultraviolet sees Goldielocks's jaw tighten.

"He never left." Goldielocks says quietly.

"What?" X-Rated blinks

"He never left, guys. We told him to leave Seattle, but he didn't." Goldielocks gets out.

Ultraviolet gazes at the two people in front of her. "How do you know this?"

"Because she kept meeting me." Flashflood says. "But then she got the cops on my ass _yet again._"

"You were going to kill a fellow Comeback!" Goldielocks snarls. "You know that!"

"I didn't know it at the time!"

"Explain." X-Rated breaks through with a vicious snap. "Now."

"After Flashflood left," Goldielocks says breathlessly. "I found out he was going to kill someone who sold him fake drugs. But the guy who did was a fellow Comeback. Flashflood didn't care, so I called the cops, and two of his new friends got arrested."

Ultraviolet gives them both a bloody glare. "Goldielocks, you continued to see Flashflood?"

"Not really." Flashflood says. "It was only the one time."

_"Bullshit!" _Goldielocks hisses. "Then you shot my boyfriend, Freddie. And you _tried to rape me!_"

"Well, you're the one who ruined my eyes!"

"My God!" X-Rated rounds on the two of them. "You never told us this, Goldielocks?"

"There was no point!" Goldielocks wails.

"You betrayed us." Ultraviolet says emptily. "We tell each other everything, but you lied to us."

"I couldn't drag you into this!" Goldielocks protests.

"And you know," X-Rated turns to Ultraviolet. "You don't tell everyone _everything_."

"What?" Ultraviolet blinks at him.

"You know what I mean." X-Rated narrows his eyes.

"We're wasting time!" Flashflood protests. "We have to—"

"Up yours, traitor!" Goldielocks hisses, pulling the knife out again.

Suddenly, a vague coughing sound strikes through the air. Everyone stops and whips their head around.

"It's the Fatherhood." Flashflood whispers. He immediately turns around and runs into the run-down apartment.

"Should we follow him?" X-Rated asks.

Goldielocks soundlessly walks after them, knife in hand. Ultraviolet feels anger wash over her. _This isn't over._

They walk down the stone stairs and into the cold air.

"Fuck," Ultraviolet rubs her pale arms. "What is this place?"

X-Rated looks around. "It looks like a…tunnel-way?"

"Over here." Flashflood's soft voice echoes around.

Ultraviolet slowly creeps closer. In the dim light, she can barely make out a young man tied to a pillar. He was struggling to free himself, grunting and wailing through the scarf tied around his mouth.

The guy was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and there were gashes on his face and body. A dirty bandage was wrapped around his head; he must have had a bad cut there. His bleach blonde hair was stained with blood and was fallen over his forehead…

She recognizes him.

"Cashmere." She whispers.

His blue eyes shoot to her face, and he just stares back.

"Ah, what a nice surprise." X-Rated comes up from behind her and laughs. "Out of all the Fatherhoods, you managed to get this one. Good one, Flash."

"What?" Flashflood looks up at X-Rated. "You know him?"

X-Rated leans down and gently brushes away the blonde hair on Cashmere's forehead. Cashmere stares back with pure hatred. "Sucks to be you, boy."

Ultraviolet swallows and says, "Untie his mouth. I want to talk to him."

"Of course you do." X-Rated glares at her. Ultraviolet ignores him and bends down, ripping the scarf out of Cashmere's mouth. He spits out blood, wailing in pain.

"Shut up!" Ultraviolet hisses. "Talk."

"What do you want me to say?" Cashmere's voice is rough and scratched.

Goldielocks's face pales. "Wait, Ultraviolet. Is this…?"

"Yep." Ultraviolet doesn't turn away. She keeps staring at the Fatherhood in front of her. "What do you know?"

"Nothing!" Cashmere's voice comes out as a wail. "I don't know how it happened! I don't—"

Ultraviolet feels pure hatred for the guy in front of her, and brings her hand against his face. Whipping out her knife, she snarls, "If you don't tell me who's responsible for the downfall of the Comebacks, I'm going to make your face really pretty."

"Nothing!" Cashmere cries. "I know nothing!"

Feeling pure bitterness wash over her, Ultraviolet cuts into Cashmere's face, right above his eye. He screams out in agony as blood leaks out.

"Just kill me already!" He screeches.

"You heard the girl. Answer her." X-Rated says, his voice grave.

After Ultraviolet adds another cut on the side of his cheek, he's sobbing his eyes out. "I promise," He whimpers. "If I knew, I'd tell you. The Fatherhoods are not responsible for what happened!"

Ultraviolet slams her fist into his windpipe. _"Tell me."_

"I…I…" Cashmere attempts to die, attempts to close his eyes and hopes that life fades away. But not yet.

"Give me one reason why I should cut off all your limbs and let you bleed out right now." Ultraviolet's voice sounds demonic.

"Because…you loved me…" Cashmere whimpers out.

"Are you serious?" Ultraviolet tips her head to one side.

"You're pathetic." X-Rated comes up beside Ultraviolet. She wonders if Goldielocks and Flashflood are still watching it all. "I mean, really? A last ditch effort to save yourself?"

Cashmere ignores him and stares at Ultraviolet. "Come on, girl." He whispers. "I know it ended badly, but we made a pact. You'd promise you'd never kill me, and I'd never kill you. This was long ago, I know… But we made a p-promise…"

"Don't listen to him." X-Rated whispers into her ear. "Remember deception? He's using it again."

"I'm not lying!" Cashmere chokes out. "I promise."

"He left you. He's just another Fatherhood. If you can't kill him, then I'll do it." X-Rated tells her softly.

"I know you love this guy now." Cashmere spits out some of the blood that trailed into his mouth. "But I'm telling you. The Fatherhoods are innocent!"

Before Ultraviolet could explain that she and X-Rated were _not_ a thing, X-Rated puts his arm around Ultraviolet's shoulders and says, "Cashmere, if you admit that the Fatherhoods are responsible, we won't kill you."

"But they aren't!" Cashmere rasps. "Why are you so quick to assume that it's the obvious? Doesn't it make much more sense that an inside source gave them the location?"

Flashflood steps up and narrows his eyes. "What are you saying…?"

"I'm saying that it makes more sense that some kind of inside source gave it away." Cashmere says. "Someone who could have told the FBI or someone who knows the FBI."

"Please," Ultraviolet scoffs. "Who would be dumb enough to tell the cops about our location?"

"Maybe it wasn't intentional." Cashmere's blue eyes reflect the dim light. "Do any of your members know anyone from the FBI.

…

Both Ultraviolet and X-Rated whip their heads around to stare at Goldielocks.

"What?" She blinks.

"Goldielocks," X-Rated says very slowly. "Did you tell your guy about our organization?"

"Um…" Her face pales. "A l-little—but wait, before you freak out, it was only after we got caught!"

"Are you sure?" Ultraviolet steps up.

"…I think so…" Goldielocks stares up at them. "Freddie wouldn't do that! He wouldn't betray me!"

"Why wouldn't he?" X-Rated says softly, his voice echoing off the stone. "You left him. You're hiding one of the biggest secrets from him. He loved you, and he found out you're in an organization? _And_ he works for the cops?"

"He wouldn't do that to me." Goldielocks's voice was full of venom.

"Goldielocks, will you listen?" Ultraviolet snarls. "Your boyfriend just got all of our friends arrested. All of them."

"He didn't!" She cries out. "If he did, he would have arrested me already!" She begins to back away. "You can't convince me."

"Goldielocks, come on!" X-Rated hisses. "Haven't you done enough?"

Goldielocks's eyes are full of tears. "If what you say is true…" She says bitterly. "Then I have betrayed the Comebacks, I have for a fact betrayed Freddie, I betrayed you two… Who is left to betray?"

The answer is easy. No one.

She turns tail and runs out of the apartment.

* * *

><p><em>Flashback:<em>

_(Sam's POV) January 18, 2010. 4:11 P.M._

_She was already there before she even knew what she was gonna do. She slips inside the building, her feet guiding her through the thin tunnels, knowing exactly where each dead-end was and where all the traps were. She knew how to get there. She's known for years._

_Once she's near, she draws out the five-note whistle. That way, the guards won't attack her. She slips inside and sees the familiar faces._

_"Hey Goldielocks." Snowcap greets her with a curt nod. Sam nods back, hardly acknowledging anyone else. Where is he?_

_Finally, she spots the scruffy blonde hair on the back of his head. There. Right there. She goes up and grasps the back of his collar._

_"Woah, woah." Flashflood whips around. "Oh, hi Goldielocks. What's up?"_

_"You. Now." Is all she can get out._

_She grabs him by the wrist and drags him away. She leads him out of the headquarters and outside. "Where are we going?"_

_"Somewhere where no one can find us," She breathes back._

_She can almost feel the nerves under Flashflood's skin prickle._

_She continues to go down the alleyways, making sure they were as far away from people as possible. Once there, she turns to him._

_Before she knows what she is doing, her lips are crashing against his. She feels the ragged bricks dig into her back as she's pressed against them. Almost immediately Flashflood's hands go to her chest; and for once, she does not push him away. She needs that close human comfort, something that she's deprived of. But no, her best friends get it. She hears a voice in her head._

"I kissed Freddie!"

_Sam growls against Flashflood's mouth. Why was this making her so angry? So what if her best friend kissed Sam's target? What does it matter to her?_

_Flashflood mistakes the growl as something arousing and he presses harder against her. _Ow,_ she bites back a wince as the bricks dig harder into her back._

_She thinks of Freddie and Carly, back at the apartment, probably kissing. Sam's hands go to Flashflood's neck and she pulls him closer. See? Carly gets her own guy, and now Flashflood is hers. She has no reason to be upset._

_No reason at all._

_Flashflood has already slid his hands up her shirt. She tries to pretend that this is a good thing; people who are in love do this, right? Sure they do, but this was different. This was all physical._

Just get over it!_ Sam screams to herself. Flashflood was great. He's kind of pretty. He's interested in her. Isn't that what matters?_

_Yes. It doesn't matter that she can taste the alcohol in his mouth. It doesn't matter that his hands haven't left her chest this entire time. None of it matters._

_And it doesn't matter that a certain brunette boy's picture is burning in the back of her mind. Oh, no, no. No way._

Just ignore it,_ she tells herself. After all, the boy is all occupied with her best friend, right? _Just ignore him. You don't need him.

_But then why does she keep seeing him? Flashflood bites down against her lip, and she whimpers out. Furious at herself, she doesn't do anything as she is roughly dominated. She would usually kill (or seriously maim) someone who dared do that. But she just wants that feeling of being wanted. Doesn't everyone want to feel that way?_

_Sam is half-lifted up. Flashflood is a lot taller than her, and he's two years older. Oh, what does it matter? She shakes her head angrily. She thinks too much. She feels him try to get her shirt off._

_She's only fifteen. Should she really give in? She thinks of Freddie and Carly again, and she feels a rush of anger. _What does it matter? I deserve someone, right?

_But now she sees him behind her eyes. Freddie staring at her with his dark eyes. She can almost hear his stupid voice say, _"Come on, Sam. You're better than this."

_Was she?_

_She doesn't know anymore._

_She doesn't like Freddie, right? She doesn't want him. She doesn't want any of him. And even if she did, she doesn't have a chance. He's all fixated on Carly. She hears his voice again, reaching her, trying to comfort her like he has times before. He may be one of the nerdish people in this world, but he's one of her best friends. That's for sure._

"Sam, come on."_ He says. _"Don't do this. Not yet. You don't need to do this. You're better than that, and you know it. You really want your first to come from this guy?"

_She doesn't._

_All of a sudden, Sam recoils and pushes Flashflood off._

_"No." She murmurs. "Not today." Before he could stop her, she slips out of the alleyway and goes back to Bushwell Plaza._


	13. Chapter 13: Help Me Help You

(Freddie's POV)

Freddie runs a hand through his hair as he sits beside the computer. Breathing in, he closes his eyes and waits for time to pass. She promised she would be back. Maybe she's already waiting. Maybe it'll be months before she returns. Who knows?

He certainly doesn't.

"Hey, Fredward." Freddie's head snaps up. Ethan is staring at him with a concerned expression. Freddie looks up at him.

"Hi."

"Are you okay? You've missed some days of work, and you aren't looking too good now." Ethan says with a sympathetic expression.

"Oh, you know…" His voice sounds scratchy and tired.

"Lindsay told me a family member is sick. Is that true?"

He nods. "Um, yes. It isn't too good."

Ethan frowns. "Well, next time, please call in. Me and Brad would be more than happy to cover for you."

"Thanks…" Freddie whispers, before dropping his head into his hands again.

But Ethan wasn't finished. "If you're free tonight, maybe you could come out with me and the others. Help you get your mind off things, perhaps?"

"The others?"

"Oh, you know. Brad. Lindsay. They'd enjoy your company. We could go out for drinks, if you like." Ethan offers.

Freddie stares at him, and then forces a smile. "I would love to, but I can't tonight. Maybe some other day?"

"Of course. Evening, Mr. Benson."

"Evening."

Freddie leaves his office once he could, feeling dizzy as he makes his way to his car. Where to? Maybe he could search around the city before heading home. But what if—

"Hey, Fredward!" A voice from behind him says. He turns around and he sees Lindsay scamper up. "I'm sorry, where you in a rush?"

"No. Well yes, sort of. I don't know." Freddie mumbles out. Lindsay tips her head to one side and looks at him with the most perfect amount of concern and innocence. He feels guilty when he talks so fast to her and hardly acknowledges her. She's so sweet, a fresh drop of innocence in his life. Had he been open-minded, she would be one of the best things to him, a pretty friend who was into him. But considering the circumstances, his mind is everything but free.

"I'm sorry." She says softly. "But if you're free tonight, I don't know if Ethan already asked you…oh, wait, he did. I'm sorry, you're going through a rough time… But when you're free, do you want to, you know, go get a coffee with me or something?"

Freddie stares at the shy secretary for a while. "I…Uh…You know…you're sweet. But…things are rough lately…I don't know…"

"Oh. Oh, of course. If you need to talk about anything, ever…" She seemed lost for words.

He forces a reassuring smile. "Thanks, Lindsay. But…but I must be going."

"Of course. Drive safe."

"I will, you too." Freddie slips into his car and heads to his apartment. Head throbbing, he gets there in no time and rushes up to his loft. He wonders where he should search first…

He gets into his apartment, and almost immediately he knows something is amiss. All the lights are off, and everything is just _too_ quiet. No one else lives with him, but he falls into the habit of leaving on the TV sometimes or the radio.

Not a single sound can be heard.

"Hello?" He calls out stupidly. He can hear some inner conscience scolding him for that. He swallows, turning on a light. He looks around.

Time stands still as he walks down his hallway. He's terrified to go into his bedroom. Absolutely terrified. The hallway is dark, and after turning on the hallway light, he can see that the bedroom door is wide open.

_Do it._

Swallowing again, he slowly moves towards the bedroom door.

And sure enough, she's standing there with a knife, poised to strike.

"Why?" She whispers.

He can hardly make her out since the bedroom light wasn't on. He doesn't come any closer, knowing it could mean a knife in the neck.

"Why what?" He asks softly.

"I lied." Sam says viciously. "I did it all. I fucking did everything and anything wrong. But if you wanted revenge, you could've done what you wanted with me."

"What are you talking about?" Freddie raises his eyebrows. "Sam, are you okay?"

"I'm the one who lied." The venom was dripping off her voice. "The Comebacks did nothing wrong. I did everything while they were innocent. So why did you hurt them?"

"I—"

"Well, guess what, Benson? You can be all happy about what you did to them, but in reality, you didn't hurt me."

"Sam—"

"Everyone else is hurt because of you, because of me. But I'm not blaming you." Sam simply moves the knife away and drops it onto the ground. She then kicks it so it spins over to his feet.

"Do it." She says softly.

"Sam," He says firmly. "I don't know what you're doing. What happened?"

"Kill me." Is all she says.

"What happened?" Freddie blinks.

"I fucked up everyone's lives. Everyone is getting hurt because of me. So do it." Sam's voice is gentle and accepting.

"I'm not going to kill you." Freddie says firmly. "Now explain."

"I lied to Ultraviolet and X-Rated. About Matt. And I lied to you. And now the Comebacks are in prison because of me." Sam stares at him. "The only way to end it is to kill me now."

"Sam, the Comebacks being in prison is not your fault." He says rustily.

"You're right. It's technically yours."

"What? _Mine_?" Freddie's voice comes out a little too angrily.

"But that's not the point. You wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for my lying. So it's my fault." Sam says slowly. "Now pick up the knife."

"I'm not going to do it." Freddie snaps. "And I didn't get the Comebacks arrested."

"Bullshit. You work for the FBI. You did it to hurt me and to benefit your system. But it didn't hurt me. It hurt everyone else." Sam kneels down, her eyes focused on the knife.

"Sam, I was with you in that apartment. When you were all bloody, in the bathtub. I didn't leave. I _slept_ while you slept. It couldn't have been me."

"It had to be you." Sam says softly. "And I'm okay with it. As long as you kill me."

"_God damn it, I'm not going to kill you!"_ Freddie snarls at her. "Now get up."

She immediately obeys. What is this? Where's the fire? Why isn't she fighting back?

"I'll do as you wish." She promises. "You can drag it out as long as you like."

"Sam—"

"We don't even have to do it here. We can go to an alley or something. So my body won't be found." She seems to be trembling.

She swallows and says, "You're pissed about what happened. And you deserve to be. So I'm going to let you make it last. You can do whatever you want with me. I won't fight back."

Freddie stares at Sam. She looks defeated. She is literally handing him her life and letting him do whatever he wishes. But he can't do that. It's like a 100x version of the situation at Troubled Waters. She's letting him do as he wishes for revenge.

And, like that time, he'll do the same.

He crosses the room. She cringes, expecting a bone-shattering blow that will send her spiraling to the ground. Instead of kissing her though, he simply hugs her tight, too tight for her to move.

"Pussy," She hisses in her ear. Her voice is muffled by tears. "You can't do it."

"No, I can't." He responds. "And you're fucking stupid to think I would."

Sam tries to struggle out of his grasp to reach for the knife, but he's holding her too tightly. "You're weak," She spits out. "You're guided by moral values. It's about time you actually did something for yourself."

"Think of this as revenge." He says softly into her ear. "Think. If you were to die here, in some evil, torturous way, it wouldn't be good enough." He grips her sides hard enough to hurt. "Because that would be too _easy_ for you, wouldn't it?"

That comforts Sam. Freddie can tell because she stops trying to get the knife. She just stands there, silently crying.

"Now," He breathes into her ear. "If you want to fix this—and I know you do—then we can. You aren't that bad of a person. So, you killed some people that threatened your friends. Okay, you had liable cause. So, you continued to meet some dirt bag. We already took care of that, sweetheart. So, you left without a trace. You already told me that it was because of Severa. It's okay—"

"There's more to it." She whispers.

"I'm sure there is. And that's why you aren't going to die yet. You aren't getting away from me that easily." He tells her. "I'll get that truth from you if it's the last thing I do."

"Why didn't you take the offer?" She asks, her voice so close to breaking. "You could have literally stabbed the truth out of me."

"Because I want to hear you admit it willingly." He responds.

He can feel her shudder. "Why are you being so sweet?"

"Because you're still Sam. I would've fixed you if you let me. And I still can. You fixed me, and I'll fix you." His breath was ruffling the hair near her ear. "Help me help you."

"I'm not worth it." She's shuddering so hard now. "You have a future. Why don't you just _give up_?"

"Because that'd be too easy for me too, sweetheart." He replies easily.

He moves away for a moment, his hand still under her chin. "Steady," He says, before moving his hand and staring at her for a good two minutes. Finally he speaks again.

"Here's what we're going to do. You're going to stay here. You aren't going back to the Comebacks. You aren't going to find Ultraviolet and X-Rated again."

"But—" She protests.

"No, no, no, no. You're done making choices. You've been calling all the shots up until now. And look what happened—you were begging me to kill you. Now listen." He goes over it again. "You're going to stay here. You aren't going back to the Comebacks. You aren't going to find Ultraviolet and X-Rated again. This organization has fucked you from the inside-out. Now you are going to do as I say from now on, until you're stable."

Sam stares up at him. "I can't forget them." She whispers. "They were my friends…"

"And if they're smart, they'll turn their lives around too. Don't you see? The Comebacks getting captured could have been fate. Maybe no one is responsible. Maybe it's just what's meant to be. Now everyone can be okay again."

"But the ones who got captured…"

"And I'm going to try my damned hardest to save them all. And since they're mostly after Severa. And then they can turn themselves around." Freddie tells her.

Sam stares at the ground. "And then what?"

"Then the Comebacks will be little more than a memory. No more sleeping outside. No more fearing for your life. Things can be the way they used to be, Sam." Freddie takes a step closer. "_We_ could be where we used to be."

"You know," Tears are hazing in her eyes again. "I left…but I never stopped loving you. Not once."

Freddie just takes her into his arms again. "We can work this out. And I know it's wishful thinking, but… But maybe we could try again?"

He feels tears on his shoulder, and he runs a hand through her hair. "We'll get through this, Sam. I promise."

"Don't promise." She murmurs. "It's just too unlikely."

"I'll prove it to you." He says softly. "Things can end up good sometimes."

"Rarely."

"That's irrelevant."

Freddie slowly pulls away. "Lay down," He tells her. "We'll work this out tomorrow."

The grip on his wrist tightens. "Don't go." She half-begs. "Not yet."

He stares back, before letting the smirk come up. To his relief, she returns it.

"I won't." He promises. "I won't.


	14. Chapter 14: Low Lifes

(X-Rated's POV)

"Should we head back to the motel?" Ultraviolet asks, ringing her fingers through her hair.

"We could do that." X-Rated says with a shrug. "Not like there's anywhere else to go."

She frowns, looking up at the sky.

"Well, it's true." He mutters, brushing some fresh fallen snow off his shoulders.

Ultraviolet continues to walk, her dark eyes flitting through everything. X-Rated follows her closely, and an awkward silence takes place.

"Ah, look, snow." X-Rated gestures towards the falling fluff. "I know how much you hate it."

Ultraviolet rolls her eyes. "I know, I know. And you love the stuff?"

"What's not to love?" He responds simply, sticking his tongue out to catch snowflakes.

Ultraviolet simply rolls her eyes and keeps walking.

"You know, your eyes are gonna pop right out of your head if you keep doing that." He teases.

"That doesn't happen." She snaps.

X-Rated just focuses on the path ahead of him. So much for joking. They pass by some alleyways. His head snaps over to where lights are flashing and people are gathered. They entered other territory, not Comebacks, not Fatherhoods. Just plain old gang territory.

X-Rated's eyes fall upon a group of individuals. Most of them were children. Wait, no—_all _of them were children. The eldest one couldn't be older than twelve. They were boiling a pot of water with fire. They were all shivering, with their hands over the pot. The eldest one was stirring it, before distributing cups out to all the other children.

X-Rated and Ultraviolet exchange a silent glance, and then approach the children. They recoil at the two's movement. Wordlessly, Ultraviolet reaches into her pocket and pulls out two twenty dollar bills and hands them to the eldest child.

All of the children's' faces are coated with dirt and their dark eyes look empty and hollow. Hope and disbelief lights in the eldest one's eyes as she takes the money from Ultraviolet. With a shaky hand, she lifts up two cups and tries to hand them to the assassins.

"No, it's okay." Ultraviolet says gently.

The child shakes her head and puts the paper cup in Ultraviolet's hand. X-Rated receives one too, and the paper cup burns his hand. He gently pats the matted hair on the top of the child's head, and he prods Ultraviolet. The two move away, sipping their drinks. It reminds X-Rated of a mixture they would drink back at the Comebacks. Water that is boiled with an herb, so it's kind of tea, but kind of not. He knows that all it is was pine nettles boiled with water in this case.

It's scalding, but it gives him a warmth that he misses. He and Ultraviolet continue to walk, now hollow from seeing those children.

"…What's happening…?" Ultraviolet suddenly asks.

"What do you mean?"

"What has this world come to?" She looks up at the stars. "I've killed children before, X-Rated. And those were suffering at my feet, and there's nothing I could do. There's nothing anyone could do."

"V, the only children you killed were those three Fatherhood offsprings who were throwing knives at your neck. And I helped you with those." He uses his teeth to clean under his fingernails. "And we gave them money. It's all we could do."

"It's not fair, X."

"Yeah, well, life's not fair. You deal with the cards you've been given, and that's that."

Ultraviolet looks over at him. Her lips open partly to say something, but then close. Just like that, with the moonlight spilling over her, making her already-pale skin look porcelain and outlining her dark hair and eyes. It makes this little snarky killer look like something more.

"What's going to happen to us?" She asks, hushed.

He knows what she's asking. She's asking if after all this passes, where will they go? The Comebacks are all they know. It's their everything.

"It'll be okay." He says to her softly. "Maybe we could leave Seattle. I know we grew up here, but think about it. There's nothing left for us."

"But—"

"I need you to answer this question. Think about it. In the Comebacks, who are our closest friends? Besides us two and Goldielocks?" He asks.

Her black eyebrows furrow together; she looks confused. "Do the dead count?"

"Yup."

"…Wavelength. Snowcap. Marker. Hummingbird. Zigzag." She blinks, trying to think, he's sure. "Maybe."

"Not that many, eh?"

"No…"

"And half of them are dead or behind bars until further notice." He takes another swig of the tea. "What remains here for us, V?"

"…Well, if you put it that way…" Ultraviolet trails off.

"We'll find Goldielocks. And then us three, we'll head out. Maybe go to Canada. We can pretend to be runaway slaves. It can be just the three of us, because in reality, that's how we were."

Ultraviolet is silent for a while. X-Rated finds himself staring at her for longer than he anticipated.

"What if Goldielocks doesn't want to come?" She murmurs.

"You think she wouldn't?" X-Rated is staring at each strand of black hair that falls over her shoulders.

"She's starting to grow close to that guy again…what's his name? Fredward?"

"What kind of name is Fredward?"

"Maybe she calls him Fred or Freddie. I think she said Freddie." Ultraviolet presses her white hand against her temple. "His file said Fredward. But anyway, what if she doesn't want to leave him again? You know she still loves him."

"Well, that's pretty damn obvious." X-Rated says. "But you might have a point."

"You think?"

"What if she doesn't want to go? Then what?" X-Rated blinks. "Well, maybe…"

Ultraviolet stares at him. X-Rated wonders if she stares at him and feels the same way like he does. He already knows that she loves him.

What is he waiting for?

"Can we leave her behind?" Ultraviolet whispers. "I don't want to…"

"Neither do I. Tell you what. We'll find her. We'll find out her opinion. If she stays, then there's nothing we can do to convince her otherwise."

"Do you think that if her guy found out what she's hiding, he'd still stay with her?" She asks.

"Oh, most definitely." X-Rated chuckles. "Goldielocks is one of the most difficult little things on this planet. If he's lasted through her drama until now, nothing's gonna him away."

"It's quite a big secret."

"She did it for him."

They fall silent.

"How could we survive?" Ultraviolet's dark eyes bore into him. "We don't have jobs or anything."

"But we will."

"We don't even have highschool degrees."

"We have the fake ones." X-Rated points out. "We won't be rich cuz we didn't go to college or anything, but we could get by. Enough to get food and maybe even a roof over our head."

Ultraviolet's head instinctively falls to one side, and onto X-Rated's shoulder. She stiffens and is about to move away, but he gives her a little shake of his head to let her know it was alright. She relaxes against him. She's much smaller than him, and she easily curls up against his shoulder.

Because this is what friends do, right?

"Thanks for defending me." She murmurs. "Against Cashmere."

"Ah, don't worry about it. The little prick deserved it." He chuckles.

"Why did you drape your arm over me, there?" She asks him. "While we were confronting him?"

"He always knew that someday we would have a 'thing'. Might as well show him before he dies." X-Rated tells him.

"But it was a lie." Ultraviolet says innocently.

"Was it?" Is all he says. They both fall silent.

* * *

><p>(Severa's POV)<p>

"Aren't these pretty?" She fiddles with the knife in her hands. "I like this one. It's almost dainty looking. What do you think?"

The woman beneath her was sucking in air like a fish. Her entire shirt was soaked in blood. She didn't have too much longer.

"Ooh, look at this one! And there isn't a speck of blood on it yet." Severa looks disdainfully at the dying girl beneath her. "I'll change that soon, but not on you. It's too late for you now."

Severa can't help but grin as the girl begins to convulse.

"I'm not really a big fan of guns. It isn't fair, you know? I'd rather savor the kill. Always a good time." Severa watches as the light dies in the woman's eyes. "Well, that was rude. You could have at least said goodbye."

Rolling her eyes, Severa stands up and moves on. Done here. She's not too far away from her destination. She wipes the blood off of her original knife, and wipes it onto the dead girl's jacket. Why should she ruin her _own_ jacket? With some random girl's blood?

Severa walks off, until she finds the place. A run-down apartment. Severa readjusts her hoodie and takes out her new knife.

It's go time.

Slipping into the apartment, no one questions her as she searches around. She sees a dark door. She looks into it and sees stone stairs leading downward.

_It can't be…?_

"Oh…" She breathes out. "I thought these were buried for years!"

"Can I help you, ma'am?"

Severa whips around and sees the apartment owner.

"I'm searching for a Matthew. Matthew Reverend." She responds with confidence.

"Don't have a Matthew Reverend booked, ma'am. You won't find anyone down there. Only a worthless little bitch that can't pay his rent." The man spits angrily.

"What's his name?" Severa asks.

"Erik or whatever. Erik Smith. If you see him, tell him he has a day to pay his rent or he's out on the street."

"Of course." Severa gives a little bow before slipping down the stairs.

She hears the man behind her grimace. Being an assassin gives you a better kind of hearing. "Um…have I seen you before, miss?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'd bet an entire hour and an half that we've met each other." Severa gives a shrug, as if it doesn't matter. "As long as you paid in full, we got no problem."

The man looks uncomfortable. "Well…you should be on your way down there, huh?"

"Of course." Severa walks down the stairs. She's such a badass liar. If you're going to lie, you always need to work up an angle. One that fits the situation. The "hooker" role isn't very original, but it's rather effective. Especially on people like him.

Assassin mode: activated.

She slowly makes her way down the stairs, her back against the wall. _Listen,_ she tells herself.

"Just kill me already!" A voice hisses. Severa freezes in mid-step and listens closely.

"Can't do that, sir, until I get the word." Another voice replies. Severa squeezes the wall with one hand. _That's Flashflood. Or Matt. Whichever. Whatever._

"You better get it quick," The other voice was rough and scratched. "I'm going to soon starve, and your plan will fall right through your fingers."

"I don't eat that much, anyway. You get used to it." Matt replies.

"I can believe that. The only thing you've put down since I've been here is Goddamn alcohol!" The other voice hisses.

"Do I have to gag you again?" Matt snaps.

The other voice falls silent.

Severa abandons the assassin mode. It would be much quicker to get it done this way. She simply walks down the stairs without a blink.

"Who's that?" She can hear Matt whip around, but she doesn't break pace. She can make them out in the darkness. There's Matt, standing, with a bottle in his hands. Another guy, someone she doesn't know, is tied to one of the stone pillars.

Once Matt can see her, the reaction is satisfying. He drops the bottle, and it shatters into a million pieces. She's seen people terrified before. Of course she has. But this reaction has to top something.

On the ground, she sees a whole box full of a nice arrangement of needles. Ooh, there's some chloroform. Great. Matt, paralyzed, just stares at her. Severa simply picks up one little needle and injects it into his arm. Matt's eyes roll to the back of his head as the weight holding him up gives. He falls onto the stone ground, his eyes still open.

The other guy is screeching his head off. Severa is already crossing the stone room and hits him in his windpipe. She grabs the other needle and sticks it into his arm. He passes out in the same way. She doesn't know who this is, but something tells Severa that he'll be important.

Now how does she get these two bodies to a secure location? Her heart races as she gazes around. This isn't a basement; this is something she has heard about for years. Years. This isn't just a little stone-crafted room. Long ago, she heard stories of secret communication underground. Tunnel-ways made by other gangs. Not just here, all over the world.

She always wanted to see the ones by Seattle, but alas, those tunnels had crumbled years ago. No remains.

But…here they are. Right in front of her. She can see some dark openings against the wall. More and more tunnels. Who knows where they lead?

She's a lot stronger than she looks, so it's easy to lift Matt up, even if he's far bigger than her. She drags him across the ground into one of the tunnels. She doesn't know the other guy, but she'll find use of him.

But for Matt… Oh, she has plans, all right. _Big_ plans.


	15. Chapter 15: Make It Hurt

**(A/N: Reading over this, I realized that I made the age of Carly's child, Max, too old considering the time she got pregnant [this becomes important later] so my bad. Pretend he didn't talk before, okay? Ugh, I wish I could go back and edit it, but I can't. He's only two.)**

(Matt's POV)

He feels a dark, smuggling force wrapping around him, knocking him into consciousness. He feels his eyes snap open as he loudly sucks in a bit of air. But no light comes. He's completely engulfed in black.

His hands are tied. He realizes that his feet are too, and there's something wrapped around his mouth. He's trapped.

He screams out, but his voice is muffled by the wrap. He tries to move, but he only wiggles on the ground since his hands and feet are bound.

"Top of the morning to you."

An icy voice cuts through the silent air. Matt forces himself to stop, and he recognizes the voice. The voice that terrorizes his dreams; he's heard it for years. He fears some people; he fears X-Rated and Ultraviolet, for example. But this one has always scared him shitless, even at the thought of her. And she's still here.

Severa.

He's wailing muffled screams now, with no avail.

"Oh, shut up. The sooner we talk, the sooner it's over." A light flashes on, a tiny bluish white light, like a lantern. The blue light frames Severa's face, her skin and eyes colorless, and her silver hair. Her hair was almost always a metallic lavender color. But now that they're on the run, it's styled differently and is now just her natural hair color, which is graying. Also, it's framing her face, and is no longer slicked back. She looks a lot more innocent and beautiful then she does when she looks like a purple snake.

But this is Severa they're talking about.

"Matthew. May I call you Matthew? Or is your name Erik now?" Severa taunts him. "Or is it Flashflood? My, boy, you have quite a few names."

Matt stares up at her, silently crying.

Suddenly, she grips his neck with her two small, ice-cold hands. She squeezes him until he cannot breathe. It forces more tears out of his eyes. "Listen, you little bitch." She snarls. "You are going to do exactly as I say. If you dare try to run away again, you won't get far." She gestures to his wrists. "I put a tracker in you. You can't escape me—and even if you tried without it, you couldn't. If you don't do as I say…" She reaches into the darkness behind her and pulls out what looks like a paper ripped out of a magazine.

She shoves it in Matt's face, and he reads it. But all it was were pictures of tombstones. He blinks, trying to focus.

"That's right. You disobey me, and I'm putting your ass in the ground. While you're alive. And all cut up."

Matt feels like screaming, but he forces himself to remain silent.

"If you do as I say and we succeed, then you're free. That's right. I'll forget about you, and you can finally be free. But you must do exactly as I say. Deal?"

He nods earnestly.

"Now, here's what you're going to do." She pulls out another picture. "Do you remember her?"

She's showing him a picture of Sam.

_Oh,_ he thinks to himself. _Her. _He feels bitterness as he looks at that picture. That stupid bitch…

"Of course you remember her. You were after her for the longest time. That isn't the point." Severa pushes her bangs out of her eyes. "You are going to find her and you are going to kill her."

Matt stares at her.

"And not just kill. No, I want you to make it last. Make it as torturous as possible. I'm giving you permission to do whatever you want, as long as it's painful. Once the blonde is dead, then you're free." Her icy eyes bore into him. "But I want proof. Are we clear?"

He nods.

Severa takes out another picture. "I wouldn't suggest just running out and looking for her. No, she'll find out and then she'll be out of your grasp. I suggest you find this man first."

Matt studies the picture. Adrenaline pumps through him. _I've seen that guy. That's Sam's boyfriend!_

The guy had short dark hair and he was smiling his head off. With closer examination of the picture, Matt sees where Severa got this from. It's straight out of the newspaper, with the title being, _Youth Scores As Head FBI Technology Supervisor._

He nods. His gaze drifts to the picture of Sam again, and he feels rage course through his veins.

Severa's voice takes on a teasing tone. "Don't kid yourself. You're going to enjoy this, aren't you? You've wanted her dead for a while, haven't you?"

She gently takes the blockade off his mouth.

When he speaks, it's rough and scratched. "I have."

"You want revenge for all that the little bitch has done to you, am I correct?" She asks softly.

Pure honesty comes out of his mouth. "Yes."

"Well, your suffering is over, Matt." Her hands go to the ties around his hands and feet, and she loosens them. He pulls them off and rubs his wrists. "Now go. Remember, you try to run, you'll be in the ground."

Matt wordlessly stands up and walks through the tunnel. His heart is racing, but in a good way. It's about time that little bitch paid for her actions. And he'll enjoy every second of it.

* * *

><p>(Sam's POV)<p>

"Guess what I got."

Sam hears a voice run through her dreams, and she opens her eyes. She's woken up to many things before, some scary—no, most scary. She's woken up to killers and survived. She's woken up to rapid dogs and survived. She's even woken up _underwater_ and survived.

But if she has to pick the most thrilling situation to wake up in, every time, it will always be opening your eyes to see Freddie Benson's right in front of her.

A smile breaks out on her face. "What?"

He gives a mischievous grin, and her heart melts as she remembers the time in senior year. While they were dating. "Bacon _and_ Canadian bacon."

"Oh my God, Freddie, you did _not_." She squeaks out.

He smiles and hands her a plate of the stuff. "I debated on giving you some eggs too, but I knew you just wanted meat."

"You thought right," She laughs a bit. She can't remember the last time she's had bacon. So it's gone in about two or three minutes. Freddie just sits back, watching her, almost smitten.

Sam runs a hand over his chin. "Are you growing a beard?"

"Trying," He says gruffly before breaking into a smirk. "You know it only grows in patches."

"X-Rated used to have that problem." Sam says softly. "But now he's got some scruff going on."

Freddie looks at her sadly. "You're going to miss them."

"Of course." She murmurs. She looks up at him pleadingly. "Can't I just—"

"No."

"But—"

"No."

"Freddie—"

"No. You said you'd do as I say. And you're going to." An air of confidence seems to have taken over the boy. "You've done _so great_ until now. Just trust me on this."

Sam buries her face into the pillow. "I just want to say goodbye."

"So they can kill me? And then you'd have to go with them." Freddie growls. "My God, Sam, for once, you gotta trust me. I can get you out of this."

"I trust you…" She begins, and Freddie makes a sound, as if he doesn't believe her.

"Oh, really? Last night you accused me of turning the Comebacks in." He crosses his arms over his chest.

"X-Rated and Ultraviolet said you were a good bet…"

"Maybe I am. But I didn't do it." Freddie tells her. She simply crosses her arms over her chest.

"I know…" She mutters.

He gently pulls her close. "Come on," He says. "After a few months or so, we can get back on track. You won't have to worry anymore."

She feels doubt bubble inside her.

"Do you _want_ to get back on track?" He says slowly.

"You know _I_ do." She murmurs. "But why you?"

"I guess some things never die." Is all he says.

A vibration interrupts them. Sam's head snaps up, half-panicking, but Freddie puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's just my phone."

"Oh." Her face relaxes.

He checks it, and his eyebrows go up.

"What is it?" Sam asks, inching closer.

"A text from my secretary." He responds, still gazing at the text.

Sam bristles; she can feel it to her fingertips. "Your secretary? You have a secretary?"

He gives a cocky grin. "Well, I _am_ the Main Tech Supervisor at the FBI, after all."

"Good point." Sam trails off.

"She was the one who came here, looking for me." Freddie tells her. "Her name's Lindsay."

_Lindsay?_

"Oh…" Sam grips the bed sheets. "Do you know her well?"

"She—" Freddie begins, but then a smirk breaks out. The air of cockiness was now coming from what she was hinting at, rather than from her job. "Hmm, what do we have here?"

"Shut it."

"Should I?" He chuckles. "Do you have any idea how great this is?"

"For you!" A smile breaks out on her face, even though she wants to hit him. "What did she say?"

"She wants to go out." He says, his cheeky grin threatening her hand to bring it across his face. "She's been askin' me for a while now."

"Oh, well isn't that just so wonderful?" Sam growls. "Ever take her up on it?"

"No, actually. I haven't. Shocked?" He asks her.

"A bit. Unless she's hideous. Lemme see a picture of her." Sam demands.

Freddie chuckles, stretching over to his nightstand and grabbing the newspaper article. He pulls back and he shows her a picture of him, standing next to who she thinks is Brad and some other guy. The only girl in the picture had to be Lindsay, and she was a lot prettier than she thought.

"You seriously didn't take up the offer of _her_?" Sam says in disbelief.

"Nah. She's too sweet." He says. His hand goes to her hair, and she closes her eyes briefly. _Never let go._

"Have you even been with anyone after…you know?" She asks, feeling her face burn with embarrassment.

"Nope." She looks at him in surprise, and he gives her an exasperated look. "I've been in Massachusetts for three years, mostly. Graduating from there so fast means you gotta be dedicated. Do you think anything like that goes on in M.I.T.?"

"No…" She mutters.

"What about _you_?" He gives her a look. "All loose on the streets. You been with anyone else?"

"No!" She almost snaps. His question sounds like an accusation. "Of course not."

"Good," He breathes out, hardly being heard.

"What?" She looks at him.

"Nothin'."

"I heard you."

"Then why are you asking?"

"To confirm."

He rolls his eyes. "You're still difficult."

"And I always will be." She says with a smile. Readjusting, she asks, "When do you have to be back to work?"

"They gave me the day-off. They think that a family member is sick."

"That's not going to make them happy." She murmurs. "Me being here."

"No…they'd fire me." He says, as if just coming to this realization.

Sam gives a sarcastic shocked face. "You don't say?"

He's silent.

Sam sits up, preparing to leave. "Are you sure you want to do this? …Because I can leave."

He grips her wrist and pulls her back down. "No. I said I'm going to help you here. And that's what we're going to do."

She nods, but she feels guilt prickling. She doesn't want to hurt him. She doesn't want to hold him back.

"So, listen. They have that name on your file. We get that. But I noticed something. The files are important, sure, but they're not focusing on them." Freddie stares at Sam. "The real issue is Severa. We all know that. You've been in public during the last three years, right?"

"Somewhat…" She seems unsure. She didn't exactly avoid public, but she spent most of her time in the hideout. "I didn't go out as often as I did in highschool."

"But no one noticed you then." Freddie seems to be thinking. "They have your name, 'Goldielocks', but they don't have your real name."

"They don't have 'Samantha Puckett'?"

"They only have the clan names. I saw Matt in there, I think. What was his clan name…Flashflood I think. They have a picture of you in prison, but that's in the unsure sightings of you. It's the only clear one of your face, though." Freddie tells her.

"So, they don't know that the girl from iCarly is in it." Sam clarifies.

"Like I said, they're questioning."

"If I went out in public, would they question me?"

"Probably. They're questioning a_nyone_ who looks shady. That's why the cops were after you and your friends after Carly saw you. But if you're out on the street in broad daylight with others, it shouldn't be a problem." Freddie blinks. "They aren't really searching the streets anymore for the others. They're only looking for Severa. You should be okay, although it's best if you and I aren't seen out there together."

Something sparks deep inside of Sam. Before she knew what she was doing, she raises her chin challengingly and smirks. "But we aren't in public now, are we?"

Freddie stares at her for a moment, before he looks away with a smile. "That's a good point."

"Look at me."

He moves his gaze upward, catching Sam's. The two sit there, staring at each other, waiting for the other to crack.

Sam catches sight of Freddie's hands trembling, and she smiles.

"You gonna crack, boy?" She teases.

"We'll see." He says through gritted teeth.

"You don't have to." Sam moves forward and kisses him swiftly, with no warning. Almost immediately he moves his hand to the back of her head, holding her close. This was crazy. This was uncalled for. This wasn't supposed to be happening. She wasn't supposed to be kissing him and he wasn't supposed to be kissing her back. Both of them are defying the laws that they have placed themselves.

Do they care?

Nah.

Should they?

Probably.

Do they care that they should?

Nah.

Another vibration interrupts them. Freddie pulls away, and Sam scowls. "Somebody better be dying. Is it that secretary of yours?"

"No, it's Brad." Freddie replies.

"Brad?" Something flutters in Sam's chest. Brad was a good friend of hers. "How's he been? Is he still dating my sister?"

"Yup," He says. "They're still going steady. And he's asking me to go out with him and the others. They all have been asking me for a while."

Sam looks at him for a while. "Maybe you should go?"

"Why?" He looks at her.

"You've been helping me so much these past few weeks. It…it really means a lot." Sam trains her eyes away from his. "You should go have fun with some tech nerds for a while. You don't want to be cooped up in here all day."

Freddie is silent for a heartbeat, before meeting her eyes and smirking. "But what if I want to be?"

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" Sam moves her lips to his neck, feeling his warmth against her mouth. God, she missed him.

"Mhm…" He murmurs. _What am I doing?_ Sam asks herself.

"Go out with your friends," She tells him softly. "You deserve a bit of fun."

"Mkay." He says, moving upwards.

_"But," _She says with a grin. "Be home early. I'll make it worth your while."

"Oh, will you, now?" Freddie chuckles.

"And don't let that little skank try to steal you away," Sam says under her breath.

"What was that?" He says, clearly hearing.

"Well, you heard it, so don't make me say it again." Sam crosses her arms over her chest.

Freddie moves his lips to her neck. "Where do we stand, Puckett?" He whispers.

"Somewhere…" She gasps when he finds her sensitive spot. My God, he _remembers_ that about her. "You tell me."

"Think I will." He responds confidently.

"Then you can go with your friends." She murmurs. "But…I mean, you're a free guy, you can make your own decisions. You don't have to be held up by anything, especially not _me. _And I want you to be happy, you know. But I'd really appreciate it if you, you know, I guess I shouldn't be asking this, I mean—"

"My God, Sam, will you shut up?" The question ends in a chuckle and Sam stops abruptly.

"Sorry." She says obediently.

"And you don't have to be all nice to me all the time." He says. "You owe me a lot, so start by doing that."

Sam stares at him. "I owe you everything."

"Yeah, you do." He stands up, off the bed. "If I go out, you won't leave?"

"Of course not!" She stares at him. "You don't have to keep asking."

"Yes, I do. And I was just making sure." He gently draws a curl back behind her ear. "I'll see you later. Try not to leave here, just to be sure that they aren't searching. There are fatcakes in the kitchen."

"Sweet." She smiles. "Buh-bye. Ask Brad how Melanie is."

"Will do." He stands up and walks out the door. She feels a bit inside her tense up. _He'll come back,_ she tells herself. _Right?_


	16. Chapter 16: Gullible

**(A/N: This chapter's kind of OOC for Sam…but I think if some psycho from your past vows to rape you, I'd cry too. Just sayin'…)**

_Flashback:_

_(Sam's POV) March 2nd, 2013 2:11 A.M._

_February 28th._

_Those words echo in her head, over and over again._

_X-Rated doesn't approach her yet. Sam sits in a crumpled bundle, her face buried in her knees._

_She hears soft footsteps approach her. "I…" It's Ultraviolet's voice. "I, um, told Severa. Make it look believable, okay?"_

_There's no need for acting. Sam doesn't move, but a sob runs her body again. She hears X-Rated shift closer to her, and then he drapes an arm over her shoulders. He lets out a sigh. Sam knows he isn't exactly thrilled by the situation either._

_More sobs run through her, and she can't stop them. She clings onto X-Rated's warmth. He's helping her so much with this. But it isn't enough. Nothing is enough._

_She hears footsteps behind her, and for some reason, she assumes it is Severa. She does nothing, just continues to ball her eyes out. Once she hears X-Rated sniffling himself, she knows for a fact that Severa is behind them._

_She hears Severa walk away after a few minutes, no words spoken between the three._

_Yep. There's no need for acting._

* * *

><p>(Freddie's POV)<p>

"Glad you could make it." Ethan gives him a warm smile.

Freddie smiles. "Of course. It's good to get away for a while."

Lindsay smiles at him. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

Freddie stares at his feet. "Um, that's okay. I got it."

"C'mon," Brad comes up and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Drinks on me."

"Okay." Freddie nods. "What's the occasion?"

"You'll see in a bit." Brad says. A few minutes later, the bartender comes up to him with some kind of drink that Freddie can't distinguish.

"So, how's your family member?" Ethan asks him.

"Ill…" Is all he says, looking downcast.

Lindsay frowns. "I'm sorry…maybe it wasn't the best idea..."

"No. Fredward needed some time out." Ethan says. Brad gives Freddie a pointed look.

"Uhm…yeah." Freddie says awkwardly. "Thanks for the invitation, guys."

"Anytime." Brad says.

Lindsay moves away momentarily, out of earshot. Freddie sips the drink he was given, unbothered until he noticed that Brad and Ethan were staring at him like hawks.

"Yes?" He blinks.

They give a little chuckle. "So, uh…Lindsay's pretty into you, isn't she?" Ethan laughs.

"Pardon?" Freddie blinks.

"Bro, she's been after you for weeks." Brad says. "It's obvious."

"I don't know what you mean." Freddie can feel his cheeks burning.

"Come on, go for it, man." Ethan encourages.

"He's probably still thinking of…" Brad trails off.

Freddie glares at Brad.

"What?" Ethan asks.

"He used to date my girlfriend's twin. But she, uh…" Brad looks at Freddie apologetically.

"Disappeared without a trace is the phrase I like to use." Freddie growls back.

"Freddie, this was all years ago." Brad says gently. "Are you ever going to…you know?"

"What?"

"Move on?" Brad finishes.

"Maybe." Freddie says uncomfortably. "Maybe not. I don't know."

"Well, I've known Lindsay for quite a while. You should try to get to know her better." Ethan encourages.

"Yeah, well…" Freddie mutters.

Finishing his drink, he finds himself stumbling out of the bar without saying goodbye. This wasn't the first time this has happened. Ever since three years ago, he has become more and more antisocial. He doesn't mean to. It just happens.

He walks back to his car. Before he can get inside, he feels his phone vibrate. Figuring it was Brad or Ethan or Lindsay asking him where he went, he pulls out his phone, and his jaw drops.

_"I kidnapped your little bitch. Aw, you mad? Get over to Valleyedge if you want to see her alive. Come alone."_

He's surprised he didn't drop dead right there. Trembling, he quickly gets into his car, and hits the brakes so hard that they screech. His mind is whirling. _Who sent that? Severa?_ What if Sam was already beaten and bloodied before then? Then what?

_I shouldn't have left her,_ he thinks miserably. He remembers himself back at the apartment, with Sam asking him why he hasn't stopped loving her. "_I guess some things never die."_ He said. Did he really mean that? Of course. Does she know that he meant it? Who knows? Well, if he doesn't hurry his ass up, she'll never know with certainty. He better get a move on.

He got to Valleyedge. His hands are trembling as he slowly gets out of his car. The night air was silent. Too silent.

"Good to see you again." A voice makes Freddie jump. He whips his head around.

"Who's there?" He calls out roughly.

Suddenly, he feels someone grip him from behind. _Help!_ He calls out silently. He feels a cold surface being pressed against his neck. He swallows, closing his eyes as death looms around him.

"Where's the girl?" A rough voice asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Freddie says tightly.

"Uh-huh. Sure." The voice laughs. Freddie can feel the man's breath on his neck. "Speak."

"If I knew, I would tell you." Freddie says.

"Where's Sam?" The man growls.

"Sir, she's been out of my grasp for years now. You're out of luck." Freddie gives a chuckle. "You'd be better off asking a complete stranger rather than me."

"Bull. Now tell me where she is." The stranger hisses. "Things will go a lot better for you if you tell me now."

"Who are you?" Freddie doesn't expect an actual answer.

"Oh, you remember me." Freddie feels the stranger run his fingers over Freddie's shoulder. "Have you recovered from that little spat yet?"

A ray of moonlight catches on the man behind him. Moving his head a bit, feeling the knife against his throat, he manages to get a glance at his attacker. Seeing the scarred face enlightens memories of Senior Year. At a party, trying to save a roofied Sam away from a maniac. Then later, getting shot in the shoulder after being held at gunpoint. And then months later, running out under the night light, answering a call that was given too late, about to lose everything…

"Matt." He says slowly.

"Ding, ding, ding." The man teases.

"Okay," He says slowly. "I don't know where she is exactly, but I know a good bet."

Matt tenses up behind him. "Go on."

"But I have to lead you there." Freddie tells him.

"And why?"

"It's in the FBI building. I could have sworn I saw her get captured." Freddie says. "But someone like yourself couldn't just walk in there. I'm qualified."

Matt keeps the knife firm on Freddie's neck. "If I drove you there, you wouldn't try to run?"

"No." Freddie says. "Why you looking for her, anyway?"

"That's classified!" Matt snaps back.

"Is it?" Freddie inquires. "You know, I don't think we're on the same page."

Matt is silent.

"I hate her just as much as you do. You and I—we can get revenge together." Freddie bites his tongue as he lies.

"You don't understand," Matt snarls. "She got some of my friends arrested. She fucked my eyes over. And I don't care what she did to you—my debt's worse."

"What were you planning on doing?" Freddie asks casually.

"Oh, you have no idea." Matt pulls Freddie closer, tightening the grip around his waist and he feels the knife being pressed up more. "No limits. No nothing. I'll finish what you stopped me from doing."

Freddie freezes, realizing what Matt was suggesting to. He remembers three years ago, when Matt attempted to rape Sam while she was dating Freddie. _Yeah, sure, that'll happen._ He thinks sarcastically. _Just try it and see what happens._

"Okay. Here's what we'll do." Freddie says, hushed. "Let me go. And I'll go to the FBI. Give me your number, and I'll call you if they're there."

"How am I supposed to trust you?" Matt protests.

_You don't, idiot!_ "I am your only chance of getting her, am I correct?"

"Well, yes…"

"So take that knife off me and listen."

Matt pulls back, glaring at Freddie.

"We'll do that. Okay?"

Matt wordlessly pulls out something in a box. Once Freddie sees a needle, he takes a step back. "What the fuck is that?"

"It's not gonna hurt you." Matt growls. "Either you take this shot or I kill you."

Before Freddie can respond, Matt already lunges at him and the needle makes contact with his skin. He feels something leak into him, and he shoves Matt off. "Fuck! What was that?"

"A tracker." Matt snarls. "Now if you're lying, the joke's on you now."

Freddie rubs his arm, glaring at Matt, and feeling panic rising in him. "Wasted effort, since I'm speaking the truth."

"We'll see." Matt stares evenly at him. "Now, you're going to contact me?"

"That's right. As soon as I find out her location. And then what?" Freddie asks.

"You get her out of there, and basically after that, we do as we wish. Beat her, rape her—"

"Okay, I will call you." Freddie interrupts. He digs his nails into his palm. _You wish, fucker._

Matt tosses him a sheet of paper, and he catches it. "Lemme know when you find her."

_Jesus Christ, you are literally one of the most gullible people I have ever met._ "Will do." Freddie climbs back into his car, and checks the built-in. Due to the time it takes to drive back to the apartment, he will be two hours later than the time he'd promised Sam. He screeches the brakes as he drives back to his apartment.

_Well, this isn't too good._

* * *

><p>(Sam's POV)<p>

Sam shakes as she sits beside the door. _Where is he? He said he'd be back!_ But it's been over two hours since Freddie was supposed to be home.

The answer is simple. He clearly bailed on her. And that's good—that's what she wants him to do. She doesn't want to drag him into the drama that she calls her life. No matter how much she wishes she could…

Or…or what if someone got a hold of him? What if X-Rated and Ultraviolet found him and killed him? Or what about _Severa_? What if he's lying in a ditch somewhere, already gone? Or what if Severa is using him as a toy? She remembers watching Severa capturing an innocent person and then slowly torture him or her to death. What if she has Freddie tied up somewhere, slowly draining him of all his blood? The thought had Sam curled up in a ball on the ground, trembling.

What makes it scary is the fact that it is very possible…

The door opens. Sam jumps up, her knees trembling, when she sees Freddie walk through.

"Sam, we need to—" Freddie begins to say, but Sam already has wrapped her arms around him, and buries her face in his chest.

"I-I thought you were dead!" She sobs. The whole thing had just gotten to her head. She was so afraid that he was dead or being tortured or both…

"Sam, it's okay." She feels his hand go to the back of her head. "Now please, there's a situation that we need to discuss…"

She pulls away, still half-crying. He takes his thumb and gently wipes away the tears. In a reassuring gesture.

"I need to tell you something," He says slowly. "And I need you to listen and not freak out yet. Okay? Can you do that for me?"

Sam nods, not being able to form any words.

"I was on my way back over here…and Matt sort of jumped me."

_Matt?_ Panic flares into Sam. "Oh my God…"

"Shh. You need to hear this." He tells her. "He said that he needs to find you. And that he's gonna get you…"

"What exactly did he say?" Sam whispers.

"Sam, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, but I need you to promise me that you won't have a panic attack or anything like—"

"Just say it!" She shouts.

"He said he's gonna beat you and…and rape you…but Sam, you gonna believe me. I'm not gonna let that happen. We need to…Sam…please don't cry…"

Sam pulls away from him. She feels her entire flank trembling. She knew that X-Rated and Ultraviolet always looked down on Matt; they never feared him. But Sam always did. Though she never admitted it.

And now here they were, and now he just fucked around with Freddie. The things that happened with Matt and her were personal. She never did what he wanted to do with her, and she guesses that left some unfinished business.

But that shouldn't have to interfere with her and Freddie. It isn't fair. She can't stand it.

"Please," He almost begs. "I'm not gonna let it happen. He's stupid to think he's gonna get away with anything. Now I need your help."

That breaks Sam out of her trance. She'll do anything for Freddie at this moment. "What?"

"He…He kind of put something in my arm." He timidly holds out his arm. "He said it was a tracker…I'm gonna get it removed somehow, but is there any kind of home remedy that you could—"

But Sam is already heading to the kitchen. "I know what he used. C'mere."

He follows her, and she turns around, holding a magnet. "Are you sure a magnet is going to work?"

"Matt is very underground. He always has been. He uses the cheapest things you can find. He's even stupid enough to try and mix chloroform with saline. I told him to and he fell for it. But odds are, this is a very cheap tracker." She holds the magnet over his arm.

"It'll short it out?"

"Yes. And it'll be useless then."

Sam continues to press the magnet against his arm. She thinks of Matt again and looks up at him. "How'd you get away?"

"I let him think that I want to kill you too. But now I need to get a new license plate and a new car color." Freddie says gruffly.

The initial panic has momentarily faded away, only to be replaced with a fresh wave of anger. "He made a big mistake."

"I know he did. And he'll pay."

"It's not just that." Sam grits her teeth. "His business with me remains with me. Just because I didn't fuck him is the reason we're having issues. But no—now he's trying to bring you into this. That's uncalled for."

"Well, it's his mistake then." Freddie growls. "And we'll get him for it."

Sam balls her hands into tiny white fists. "I'm gonna kill him."

"For once, Sam, I do not doubt you there." Freddie responds.

Sam stares at the ground, the anger fading, replaced with the fear again. "Unless he finds me first. He's always played unfair. He never confronts. It's all sneak attacks."

"Don't worry, Sam." She looks up and Freddie's staring down at her, with a concerned face. "You have nothing to worry about."

"I have everything to worry about!" Sam protests.

"Well…yeah. But we'll take care of it. Somehow."

"What if he finds out that you live here? Look, I'm not so worried about me. If he finds out you lied, then…"

"Then he'll find out. And then he'll come looking for me. And then we can arrest him and game over for him." Freddie soothes. "It'll be okay."

"But what if he finds you in the dark? With a knife? Then what?" Tears are returning, no matter how hard she tries to keep them restrained.

"That won't happen. I have a plan, actually."

Sam looks up. Of course. Freddie Benson always has a plan. Do they always go through? Rarely. But he means well.

"Let's hear it," She says.


	17. Chapter 17: Stranger

**(A/N: I changed the description cus' I felt that it didn't describe the story right. I felt that the gang needed to be included somehow.)**

(Ultraviolet's POV)

"Okay," X-Rated mutters. "Next time, I choose how we get there."

Ultraviolet rolls her eyes and pulls herself onto the next patio in the sky. "Get a move on. If we fall now, they'll have to scrap bits of us off the ground."

"Thanks for the visual." He chuckles as he climbs higher. "God. I really hate this method."

"I'm not a fan of climbing either, but still." Ultraviolet says. "It makes me feel like a badass when I do it."

"It's not badass when you're falling." He reminds her.

"Another good point." Ultraviolet's hand grips the edge of the next patio. "Fuck, it's cold. He's on the eleventh story, correct?"

"That's right."

"We're almost there, then." Ultraviolet wipes her nose, holding on with one hand, before pushing herself upward. "Hurry! It's so damn cold!"

"You're always in a rush, you know that?" X-Rated teases. "Lighten up."

"I'll lighten up when it's not so fucking cold." She flashes back.

X-Rated pulls himself upward, and then looks over at Ultraviolet with a grin.

"What?" She asks.

"Race you." He says a brief second before plummeting upward, climbing as fast as he can.

Ultraviolet smirks. She loves a challenge. X-Rated may be bigger than her, but her smaller demeanor was an advantage here. _And_ she was faster than him anyway. She's so competitive sometimes…

She quickly catches up to him, and they were only two stories away from their destination. She was just about to pull ahead of him when she heard him elicit a gasp. She turns her head and sees that, in that brief half-second, he'd let go of the bars with both hands.

And in the next brief half-second, she lets go of one hand and grips his arm. He clings to her while they both dangle over open air. He hand slides down the bar, barely catching on the very edge.

"Hold on!" X-Rated yelps, pulling himself up and grasping the icy bars again. They both regain their balance and pull themselves up and onto the patio, panting. "Well, that was close." X-Rated says breathlessly.

Ultraviolet whips her head around and smacks his shoulder hard. "No fucking duh! You could've killed yourself!"

"Oh, and I could've killed you too." He adds.

"Yeah, that too!" She snaps.

"Hey, hey." He says, trying to be gentle. "I'm sorry. The bars were coated in ice and I slipped."

Ultraviolet stands up, shaking her head. "Come on. Only one story away."

They easily slip onto the last patio, and X-Rated makes work of picking the lock. They step into the warmth, and they immediately hear voices.

"But what if he finds you in the dark? With a knife? Then what?" That's Goldielocks's voice, and it sounds tear-strained.

"That won't happen. I have a plan, actually." That's her ex's voice, or her boyfriend's voice. What he is to Goldielocks has become blurred to Ultraviolet.

"Let's hear it," Goldielocks says.

Before anyone else can speak, both X-Rated and Ultraviolet walk into the room they were in. Freddie and Goldielocks flinch, their eyes wide.

"Ultraviolet! X-Rated!" Goldielocks's blue eyes were huge. "How did you get here?"

X-Rated gives her an exasperated look. "We've been here before."

Ultraviolet eyes Freddie, which makes Freddie shrink back a little. "So, what's going on here?"

"What do you mean?" Goldielocks asks, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, it's been days since you confessed everything before disappearing. So…an explanation would be awesome, bro." X-Rated says, resting his head against the wall.

"What do you want me to say?" Goldielocks asks them.

"Just an explanation." Ultraviolet says lightly. "And what's this 'plan' you two speak of?"

Freddie steps up and clears his throat. "Um…are you familiar with someone named Matt?"

"Flashflood." Goldielocks says quickly.

Ultraviolet narrows her eyes. "Why…?"

"You two were right. Flashflood is an enemy." Goldielocks says quickly. "He's after me."

"But we just saw him two days ago." X-Rated furrows his eyebrows together. "He didn't attack you then."

"He just jumped Freddie and threatened to kill him if he didn't give my location. And he tried to put a tracker in him, too. I'm telling you, he's bad news." Goldielocks looks up at them. "Don't you believe me?"

"Of course we believe you." Ultraviolet says gruffly. "Flashflood is a traitor and he always has been. But now what?"

"What do you two think we should do?" Goldielocks asks.

"Flashflood isn't really a problem. He's probably just derping around, looking for attention. If worse comes to worse and he attacks again, then we'll just kill him. Simple as that." X-Rated shrugs.

Freddie and Goldielocks exchange a glance.

"We were thinking about heading up to Canada, like our original plan." Ultraviolet rasps. She stares at Freddie and Goldielocks, who were standing shoulder-to-shoulder. "I, um, are you in?"

Goldielocks stares at the both of them. "…"

* * *

><p>(Carly's POV)<p>

Carly gently brushes the top of Max's head. He's sleeping on her couch right now, his tiny head lying against a pillow. She turns off the TV he'd been watching and lays a blanket over him, before moving into the kitchen.

She waits impatiently. She doesn't know why she does this. It's been days and she hasn't heard from Freddie. Where is he? Is he okay? The last she heard from him, he was off to go and find Sam again.

Did he find her?

No… He would have told her if he did…

And if he didn't…what if he's back in that depression? That fog with no escape? Actually, he seemed a bit better after he got back from Massachusetts. But now that Sam has popped up again, he must be back in that never-ending hole.

_I should call him,_ she tells herself. But she can't. What if he's on her trail now? This is too confusing.

She moves to the back door, gazing out into the snowy field. Where did everything go wrong? She didn't demand much, but this was way off then how she imagined them in three years. Not speaking to her two best friends in three years…

Suddenly, something catches her eye. She looks up and sees what might as well be described as a ghost of a girl up ahead, climbing over her gate. She's wearing a thin, black hoodie, and her frail arms are stronger than they look as she hurtles herself over the barrier. She lands neatly—like a cat, sort of—and then begins to move across the yard. Looking back and forth as if the world was the enemy.

Carly steps up and opens the back door. "Hey!"

The woman's head whips around and her eyes meet Carly's.

"May I help you?" She calls out. Her voice is icy and thin, yet Carly doesn't detect any sarcasm or bitterness.

"I-Is something wrong?" Carly asks, stepping closer. "Are you looking for something?"

The woman inches closer, and Carly resists the urge to step back. The woman's ice blue eyes are completely locked with Carly's as she traces a hand through her wispy silver hair.

"Well, yes, actually." The woman laughs. At least, Carly thinks she's laughing. It's more of a raspy cough. "But I'm afraid I can't search for a home here, alas."

Carly stares at her. "You're homeless?"

"Unfortunately, dear. Oh, I've been trespassing in yard, haven't I?" The woman's eyes were wide with distress. "My gosh, I'm so sorry. It won't happen again. I better just head on away now…"

"Wait!" Carly calls. The woman turns back and looks at Carly. "Wait one second, okay?"

Carly pulls back inside and goes to her kitchen. She pulls out fifty dollars from their "safe" cabinet and moves back out. The woman was looking innocent, peering inside, self-consciously brushing silver hair out of her face.

"Here," Carly says, handing to her.

The woman smiles. "That is so kind. Thank you, dear. How can I repay you?"

Carly opens her mouth to say how it was no trouble, but then she thinks of something. "Hey…you've been around the streets, right?"

"I reckon I have. Not around here too much, though. But after those woods"—she gestures to the tiny forest behind her—"I've been around.

"H-Have you seen a girl?" Carly stutters out. "Twenty years old. Long, curly blonde hair—oh, and blue eyes. Have you seen her?"

The woman's lips purse together, and Carly watches her swallow. "I think I have, miss. What's her name?"

"Her name is Samantha Puckett." Carly says breathlessly. "You've seen her? Where? Is she okay?"

"Just around. On the streets, in alleyways. She didn't look too good the last time I saw her." The woman frowns. "Do you want me to search for her?"

"I can't ask that of you—" Carly begins.

"Oh, it's no trouble. I'm out on the streets anyway—can't be too hard to keep an eye around."

Carly stares at her. "Are you sure?"

"Definitely." The woman begins to back up. She smiles. "Don't worry, dear. I'll find your friend. And she'll thank you for this, trust me."


	18. Chapter 18: Come To Play

**(A/N: WOW. I really got demented in this one :D What makes it scary is that it's based off of a true story. Sort of. A few years back, my brother was playing X-Box Live and he met someone in a different location. He seemed normal and the two became friends. Of course, my brother later learned that this guy was an absolute psychopath. This guy told my brother that if he ever killed someone, he would do it this way. He goes on to explain one of the most gruesome ways to ever kill someone, ever. I still remember it, and now I have adopted it and recalled it the "Severa-Style". So if you are the guy my brother befriended before unadding him, your way to kill someone is now here. Congratulations you sick fucker.)**

(Sam's POV)

Sam stares at her two friends. "Umm…"

"Us. Canada. In two days." X-Rated repeats. "Are you in or not?"

"…Are you sure Canada is a good choice?" Sam stammers. "Why not like…Utah or something?"

"Utah?" Ultraviolet tips her head to one side. "Why Utah?"

"Nothing bad ever happens in Utah!" Sam points out.

"Yes there is!" X-Rated protests. "One word: Mormons."

Sam exchanges a glance with Freddie. _Help me out here! What do I tell them?_ She begs silently.

Ultraviolet's dark gaze flits from Sam to Freddie. "What is going on between you two?" She demands. "One moment you're running away from each other, the next, you're plotting behind our backs. What is going on?"

Freddie stares evenly at Ultraviolet, and Sam can't help but feel a prickle of respect.

"I know you and I come from different worlds," Freddie says to her. "But we're on the same boat here."

"What do you mean?" Ultraviolet narrows her eyes. "You're a cop, and we're criminals. How do you expect us to trust you?"

"Don't you see?" Sam protests. "We all have a common enemy here. We can't sit around suspecting one another of not trusting each other."

Ultraviolet glares at Freddie, and Sam can tell that he's trying his hardest not to shrink back.

"Why should we trust him?" She growls. "He hasn't given us a reason to."

"I am not the enemy." Freddie says. "You have given me many chances to turn you all in, and I'd never take them. Why? Because I'm not concerned about a bunch of broken organization members from a fallen group. No matter what your goals are, innocent people are being hurt right now. Some of your friends are in prison. We all have things we need to take care of, but we need to take care of them one thing at a time."

X-Rated stares at him for a while before saying, "So, what do you suppose we do to help the captured victims?"

"It'll take time, but I have a feeling that I can prove that they were brainwashed. We could make the organization out to be like a cult—"

"We are not a cult!" Ultraviolet snarls.

"Just listen!" Sam snaps. "This is going somewhere."

"We'll have to tarnish the Comeback name, but it'll get those people freed." Freddie finishes.

"But that means they'd be after Severa." X-Rated says. "I mean, if we call them out on being a cult, they're gonna want a cult leader."

Sam looks at her friends. "…Is Severa going under really _that_ bad?"

X-Rated and Ultraviolet's eyes widen.

"Think about it." Sam says. "She's been threatening us all our lives. And she just left everyone to die."

Ultraviolet stares at Sam in disbelief. "You really want to turn in _our leader_ for all of this?"

"Look," X-Rated says gruffly. "We have other things to worry about as well. What do you have on that, sir?"

Freddie glances side-ways at X-Rated. "Well, I think the main problem is that there are people behind bars…"

"It is. But here's another thing to consider." X-Rated says. "Maybe we could make the person that turned in the Comebacks take all the heat."

"What?" Sam looks over at him.

"Think about it." X-Rated tells them all. "As much as we'd like to believe that the police had just _managed _to stumble across our hideout, we know it isn't possible. They would have needed direct passageways, and info on when the guards weren't there. It had to be an inside source."

They all nod for him to continue.

"So, I guess it never was Freddie…" X-Rated says, glaring at him. "But I still don't trust him. He _does_ work for the FBI."

Freddie returns the glare.

"So, what you're saying is…" Ultraviolet says carefully. "Someone that we know turned us in?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." X-Rated responds.

"But who?" Sam says. "Who's against us?"

"Could it have been a Fatherhood?" Ultraviolet asks.

"As much as I wish, probably not." X-Rated says.

Everyone is silent for a while, before Freddie finally speaks up.

"What about Matt—er, Flashflood?"

Sam blinks. "You think?"

"That's a good guess." Ultraviolet growls. "A very good guess."

"I'm not too sure…" X-Rated says warily. "I mean, I know he—"

Sam hears her phone vibrate. She looks over and sees that a text has come up from an unknown number.

"Who is it?" Freddie asks.

"I don't—" Sam begins to say, but then she pops the text up. It includes a picture of a very familiar looking house, and it chills her blood. "What—"

_"Look familiar, Goldie? Good. Because I know what you used to do. Right here is where your best friend lives, but I'm sure you knew that. Now, here's what you're going to do. You broke your promise. You didn't come to the edge of Seattle like you promised. We're still going to 'talk' about this, Goldielocks, whether you like it or not. If you choose not to come tonight, then here's what I'll do. I'll come back to this house and I'll kill everyone inside. Your friend Carly, her son, Max, and her husband, Alex. That's right, I got all their names. All their information. And she's pregnant too, so that's four lives that mean a lot to you, hanging over your head. I know you're a murderer, but you don't want these people dead. If you don't show up tonight, then I will do the __**Severa-Style**__ on them. I know that's not what you want. Even your soul couldn't allow that. So come on, Samantha Puckett. What do you have to lose?  
>~S"<em>

Sam simply drops her phone and starts to walk away.

"No." Is all she says.

"No what?" Freddie calls back. "What happened?"

"She wants me dead?" Sam hisses under her breath. "Then fine. Let's go." She swishes her knife off the ground.

Ultraviolet and X-Rated grip her arms. "What's going on?" They demand.

"Severa wants to meet me so badly?" Sam snarls. "Then fine. I'll give her what she wants, and then we can finally end this!"

Freddie finishes reading the text, and looks up at Sam, horrified. "Oh my Lord…she found Carly?"

"Yup. Not for long." Sam is about to walk out the door, but Freddie stops her.

"Sam, we need to ta—"

"No. No, we don't need to talk." Sam stares at all three people. "There are three people—well, technically four—who are all about to die right now. If I never came out of hiding, then they'd all be out of danger."

"Sam, you're talking about going out and letting Severa kill you!" Freddie snaps. "That doesn't add up!"

"No, it doesn't. And I have a feeling that Severa is gonna keep me alive for her benefit a bit more. There's nothing I can do." She slowly walks out the door.

"Sam, don't do this." He begs.

"Freddie, do you know what Severa-Style is?" Sam asks with a snarl. "It's a signature killing technique that she invented. It's when you cut off a person's limbs and face—basically most of their body. But then you sear the stumps with fire so they don't bleed out. So they simply wait in that agony until they starve to death." Sam feels her world slipping out of focus. "It's too late for me now. But I have a friend to save, and I owe that to her."

She feels his grip on her wrist. "I can't let you go."

Sam stares into Freddie's eyes. "I promise you." She murmurs. "If Severa is truly gonna bring me down, I'm bringing her down with me."


	19. Chapter 19: Speak Now

(Severa's POV)

"Your time is running out, Reverend." She breathes into the phone.

"I-I'm trying the best I can." He yelps on the other line.

"Well, it isn't good enough. I suggest you get a move-on unless you want a tombstone with your name on it." She sneers. "I would do the Severa-Style, but that takes a month. I don't want to deal with your whining ass for that long."

"Can't you lure her to me?" He begs. "You said you were meeting her on the other side of Seattle."

"And I am. But my purpose for that is none of your God-damned business." She hisses.

"I could help…" He murmurs.

"The only way you can help is to fucking rid of earth of the blonde. The rest of my work is my business, only." Her voice takes on a teasing tone. "Your time is running out. Tick, tock. Now here's what you're going to do."

She hears Matt swallow on the other line.

"After I talk to Sam, she's gonna go back out. And then you head over here, and boom, your work can be done tonight."

"What are you gonna talk to her about?" He half-whimpers.

"I thought I told you that it was my business?" She snarls.

"I-I'm sorry, I—"

"Relax, you coward. All I'm gonna say to her is a plot that I've been planning for a while. I can pretend she's part of it, sure, when in reality as soon as we're done speaking, you'll come out and finish the job. Comprende?"

"And then I'll be free?" He whispers.

"Hmm…I'll think about it."

"But you said—"

"Never mind what I say. Just face the facts, Matt. You're my slave until I say you aren't, or I kill you. Now get a move on!" She hangs up the phone.

Severa absentmindedly plays with the briars and the vines that grow in thick thistles around her. She runs a hand through her hair. She can't wait to get her hands on some purple dye.

By the time the sun has set, she hears some vines rustling.

"You never did have stealth, Goldielocks." Severa says out-loud, delicately picking at her fingernails.

There's a brief silence before she finally says, "What do you want?"

"First off, I'm trying to figure out what to call you. Goldielocks or Samantha?" Severa can make out the young girl's body, outlined by the falling sun.

"Just call me Sam." She growls. "Fits me more."

"I bet." Severa stands up, which makes Sam inch backwards. "So, why didn't you show up the first time?"

"It doesn't matter." Sam says hoarsely. "I'm here now."

"Indeed." Severa smirks at Sam. "But only because I threatened you."

"You leave them alone." Sam says bitterly. "I'm serious."

"And I'm supposed to be threatened by you?"

"Yes. You can do what you wish with me—I don't give a damn. But you…you keep your paws off of them." Sam's eyes were blazing hatred. "Go ahead and beat me till I'm numb. Or drain all of the blood out of me. Or even do Severa-Style on me. I don't care. But I can make sure that you stay away from them."

"And how is that?" Severa tips her head to one side, still giving the teasing look.

"I know things about you, Severa. And let's face it—you're number one on the cops' list. They'll find you."

"You think you know me?" Severa says coldly. "Oh, Sam, I know so much about you. I know everything."

Fear blazes in Sam's eyes, and it's satisfying. "No you don't."

"Try me."

"If you knew, you would've finished it off then."

"Hardly. It's much more fun letting you all scramble." Severa eyes Sam up and down. "Well, this isn't how I wanted our talk to go. I wasn't going to threaten you."

"Bullshit." Sam says in an angry whisper.

"No, really. I meant what I said, Sam." Severa stares at Sam. "Do you know how many Comebacks are left?"

"Dunno." Sam murmurs. "How many?"

"Well, we had about three hundred members. Now most of them are missing, and some are behind bars. All I know is that you, Ultraviolet, and X-Rated are out there."

"Go on." Sam says.

"If this is the end of the Comebacks, then fine. But we need to strike back." Severa says. "There are less Fatherhoods than Comebacks. So here's what we're going to do."

"You said something before about the Aftermath…" Sam says, unsure.

"That's right. We're going to kill the Aftermath." Severa declares.

"How?" Is all Sam says.

"I hate to admit it, Sam, but you're exceptional. Most children born in the Comebacks, or join the Comebacks when they're young, almost always die. I know you're aware of that."

Pain flashes in Sam's eyes, and Severa can tell that she's trying hard to keep a straight face.

"But you've been with us since you were seven. Hell, you got your first kill when you were eight. That's something to consider."

"So, what?" Sam says roughly. "You want to use me as a weapon against them?"

"Precisely. I mean, think about it, Sam. No matter how you look at it, I have all the dice here. And you have no choice. If you don't help me, your friends will die, and not just that one family, either. X-Rated and Ultraviolet, too. Are you up for it?"

Sam stares at Severa for a while. "Ultraviolet and X-Rated joined when they were six. Surely I'm not the only child who made it through."

"Ultraviolet and X-Rated only stayed in the Hideout and didn't venture out until they were ten. They got their first kill around that age, too. And I know what you did, Sam. You lived half a life. Let's face it—you have more social experience then the rest of the Comebacks do because of that."

"I haven't been in public for years." Sam says bitterly.

"Sam, are you in or not?" Severa growls. "I'm really starting to lose patience."

"I'm in…" Sam says with equal hatred. Severa can easily see the lies in her blue eyes. "As long as you leave my friends alone."

"How can I make such a big promise?" Severa teases.

"Just do it." Sam growls. "I'm serious."

"We'll see." Severa adjusts the gloves on her hands. "Now, I'll call you with details. Run along, now."

Sam gives Severa one more icy look, before shouldering her way out of the vines and leaving.

_Stupid girl,_ She thinks with a smirk. _She just lied to my face. She isn't going to help me. But jokes on her—Matt's waiting for her. This is her last night._

She looks around, her eyes flitting through the vines. Usually no one can sneak up on Severa—but there's one person who can. Yes, the one person who may have a shot at defeating the Aftermath. Someone who's been in the Comeback since birth.

"You here?" Severa whispers.

The vines part, and the girl steps out of the briars, her eyes brimming. Severa smiles. Oh, yes. It's true, Sam is a remarkable fighter, but her loyalty is next to none. The girl standing in front of her literally gushes out loyalty, and she always has. Plus, her sneak attacks could even be compared to Severa's. Yes, there was no need to question her choice about Sam's demise. Her soldier is here."

"Twinkletoes." Severa grins. "It's time."

* * *

><p>(Sam's POV)<p>

"Damn," She says as she walks back to the subway. "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn…"

Well, ain't this great? She wasn't dead yet—but now she's buried even further. How is she gonna get herself out of this one?

_Maybe I shouldn't go back…_ She tells herself. _I already sucked Carly into this… I can't have Freddie get hurt too. This has gone too far… Maybe I could—_

"Surprise."

Sam doesn't even bother to turn around or look for where the voice came from. In that split second, she's already sprinting off.

But she feels a hand go to her hair, pulling her backwards. Before she could retaliate, someone is already hitting her with something. She feels her knees sink.

_No!_ She screeches. _No, no!_

She feels herself being forced onto the ground, and hands being pressed on her shoulders to keep her in place. She looks up and sees Matt's face not even an inch away from hers.

"About time, too." He hisses in her face, and she can smell the alcohol. Jesus Christ—when is she _not_ wasted?

"Don't do this, Matt." Sam warns. "We still have tim—"

"Shut the fuck up!" He brings his hand down again, almost stunning her. She can almost feel her eye blackening. "You don't know what's fucking happening. You're done for, blondie."

Before anything can happen, Sam can hear the faint sound of sirens. She smirks up at Matt. "Didn't you know? They're searching for Severa. How do you think they're going to react when they see us?"

Matt looks unconvinced, and then Sam says, "Think. Some guy jumping some girl? You picked the wrong time to mess with me."

Matt gets off of her, but grabs her wrist. "Fine, then. We'll do it in my car." But before he could drag her in, Sam pulls her knife out of her pocket and drives it into Matt's wrist. As soon as his grip loosens she leaps away and stands at a safe distance. She smirks at him as he screams in agony.

"You're not a true assassin." Sam sneers. "If you were, all you had to do was cut me and we'd be done. But no—why are you trying to drag it out?"

"You have no idea what I will do to you." He snarls, holding his wrist tightly as blood gushes out. "And it isn't over, Sam. I will fucking find you!"

She feels a prick of fear in her spine, but she forces herself to glare at him defiantly. "I doubt it, Matt. Now I have some things to do. Have fun bleeding out."

She turns around and sprints off in the opposite direction. She can hear the sirens increasing, but she doesn't care. Her head was whirling. How did Matt know she was going to be there? And why didn't he just cut her throat to get it over with?

There has to be something deeper going on. And as she runs back to Freddie's apartment, she'll soon learn. She remembers Freddie telling her that she could turn it around, and that everyone could be saved. But with each passing moment, it simply becomes "wishful thinking".


	20. Chapter 20: All I Have Left

**(A/N: So…I've been thinking about cutting through most of the subplot. I already wrote this story before [for my Creative Writing Class. Over 100 pages of it, including all the side-plots. I got an A+ and I have never felt so proud about anything beforehand] and it was really, really long. But the two main characters weren't Sam and Freddie. They were two other people who were in the same bitter situation. I decided to bring it here, substituting them with Sam and Freddie.**

**So, I will finish this—but I may cut out some parts that made the original longer. And since this is AU, it doesn't really matter, because this is not how I think the iCarly crew will end up in 3 years after the show xD)**

(X-Rated's POV)

The ice crunches beneath his feet as he walks side-by-side with Ultraviolet. Neither of them speak—there is just too much to say and not enough time. Ever.

Finally, Ultraviolet gets a word in. "I can't believe this."

"Can't believe what?" X-Rated asks. "And don't blame me for asking. There is so much going on, and we need to narrow it down."

"I…I always knew there was something about Severa." Ultraviolet blurts out. "Something sinister. But…betraying the Comebacks? Our own leader? We've been in this far too long…"

"Answer me honestly." X-Rated says. "If we leave, right now, would we—"

"We can't do that." Ultraviolet interrupts. "Goldielocks is out there. What if Severa has already killed her? What if—"

"Just disregard Goldielocks for one moment. Don't look at me that way—you really think I'm going to leave her here? Just listen." X-Rated says to her. "If we were to leave right now, do you think we'd ever truly escape?"

"It depends on how far we run." Ultraviolet murmurs.

"I think…I think if we left very soon, we'd have a good chance." He looks away. "Now we just need to get Goldielocks on board."

"She'd never leave." Ultraviolet points out. "You know that."

"She already left once."

"Only because we made her."

Wind rustles the frost-bitten trees above them, sending bits of snow scattering in the air.

"That wasn't our fault."

"No, it wasn't. If it wasn't for us, she'd be dead right now." X-Rated points out. "But you know she blames us in some way."

"It was all her damn fault. For all of it."

"And she paid for it, didn't she?"

Another drift of wind courses through them, and X-Rated watches as Ultraviolet crosses her arms over her chest and gives him another glare.

"Considering the circumstances, she made out pretty well."

"You don't need to demean her. Would you have performed so well if it had been you?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been me, because I'm not that fucking stupid."

X-Rated grits his teeth. "Oh, really?"

Ultraviolet's eyes blaze. "I don't even understand why we've lasted this long." She hisses. "All we do is argue."

X-Rated feels the fight drain from him. He needs to be the mature one here, and he usually is. That's why they've lasted as friends for so long—because he's always the one who's swallowing his pride for the sake of them. He has to do it.

"Look. You're tense. I'm tense. And fighting isn't going to solve anything. Let's just search for Goldielocks, and then—"

"Maybe we shouldn't search for Goldielocks." Ultraviolet counters.

"What?"

"You heard me. If she thinks she's so sure of herself, then let her stay. Once her guy figures out what _she's been hiding all this time_, then he'll leave her, and she can suffer with it by herself." Ultraviolet has never sounded so bitter.

"You're talking about our friend, here."

"A true friend wouldn't even _consider_ leaving the two people that have carried her weight since she was seven!" Ultraviolet flashes back.

"Ultraviolet, please." He says through gritted teeth. "You're being ridiculous."

"What does it even matter?" She shouts. "We're down for the count. You really think we're going to escape, X? You really think we're going to get out of this alive? Well, we're not, because in the next month or so, we'll either be cut by Fatherhoods, or in a ditch with all the blood drained out of us, or sitting in an execution room with lethal injections coursing through us. Quit trying to sugarcoat it, because we both know that we're—"

_"Will you knock it off?"_ He snarls at her, breaking her out of her rant. "Do you think I haven't been awake at night, thinking of all of this? Do you really think I haven't woken up in the morning and said to myself, 'Is today the day I die'?" We had to go through this back before all this happens, but we didn't believe it. We thought we were invincible. Do you know how it feels to have that taken away from you? Of course you do—because whether you like it or not, we're in this together." He can feel the rage bubbling inside of him. "And so is Goldielocks. We can't distant ourselves from each other—not when we're all we have left. And Goldielocks doesn't even want to come, and…" He trails off, and he feels tears surfacing. He's been the calm one up until now, and Goddamn it, he can't take it anymore. "Everyone and everything I have ever known is gone, Violet. Whoever we call 'friends' are now behind bars. You're literally all I have left."

Ultraviolet stares at him for a long time, her eyes clouding over with some kind of emotion that he couldn't recognize. "X-Rated, I need to tell you something."

He looks back at her, and practically prays that she'll say what he thinks she'll say. If he is going to die at any time now, he wants to hear if beforehand. Doesn't he deserve that much?

Before he can say, "What?", a familiar voice stops him.

"Didn't think I'd ever see you cry, R-Rated."

* * *

><p>(Freddie's POV)<p>

"I need you to watch the streets." He commands Ethan through the phone.

"What?"

"There is a blonde girl on the street as we speak that is very near Severa." He tells him. "The one we're after. They're at the edge of Seattle right now—do not arrest the blonde. She's…sort of bait, I guess. Just—Severa's there, okay?"

"I'm sending dispatch. And what do you mean she's 'bait'?" Ethan demands.

"It means that if they don't get there fast enough, she'll be dead. Just send people!" He demands.

There's a pause on the other line. "Look, Fredward, I'm just trying to fi—"

"Just. Send. People." He growls one more time before hanging up.

He paces around the room. Fuck. Why did he let her go? If Severa is as dangerous and she says she is—then she's dead. _Sam's dead?_ In the three years that she was gone, he'd wondered if she was dead. Never being able to say good-bye…is that what's happening here?

He isn't sure how long he paced for, but he hears a knock on his door, and Sam's voice. "Freddie! Open the door!"

His heart melts and he literally bolts to it, opening the door with one twist of the knob. The blonde curls rushes forward, slamming the door shut once she was inside. They entangle in some kind of hug/glomp.

"Fuck," She whispers over and over again. "Fuck. I'm dead."

"What happened?" He demands.

She stares at him. "I'm in deep shit." Is all she says.

"What did Severa say?" He says again. He grips her shoulders and stares into the eyes of the hyperventilating girl. "You need to tell me."

"She tried to convince me to kill the Aftermath with her again, but then Matt…" Her eyebrows furrow, as if she was trying to figure it out. "Literally five minutes after I left, he tried to attack me. And he didn't even try to cut my throat…it was almost as if he was gonna take his time…like Severa does…" She pauses. "Oh no."

"You think they're…"

"…in cahoots, yes Freddie, I think they are." Sam says, her eyes smoldering with every emotion there is. "So that's why he's after me."

Freddie takes a deep breath and says, "I called the police."

"What?"

"I told them to go the edge of Seat—" The rage that explodes in Sam's features makes him stop.

_"You fucking idiot!"_ She screeches. "Why would you do that?"

"I thought you were going to die!"

"That's not the point! Once Severa figures out that I'm acquainted with someone from the FBI, she'll know I'm not on her side, and they'll be no way she'll let us live!" She wails.

"Not unless the FBI catches her. And then this will all be over."

"She won't get caught so easily." Sam begins pacing back in forth, her hands tangled in her hair, almost pulling it out. "She probably won't even go after us. They're going to go after Carly's family…" Tears haze in her eyes. "Why can't Severa just kill me already?"

"Sam, please." He begs. "Calm down."

"She's going to kill them…"

"I can send back-up over to their house…"

"It won't help…"

"Sam…"

She looks up at him. "Wait…are you sure you can send protection over to them?"

"If I show the FBI the text, there might be reasonable cause."

Relief flutters in her eyes.

"And who knows? Maybe the cops will catch Severa tonight, and this will all be over." He says hopefully.

Sam sits on the ground and buries her face in her hands. "We're still screwed."

Freddie sits down beside her and puts his hand on her knee.

"I know." He says. "We are."


	21. Chapter 21: Alliance

(Ultraviolet's POV)

"It's X-Rated." The sarcastic glint in X-Rated's tear-strained voice has returned. "What do you want now, blondie?"

"Don't call me that." Cashmere says, striding up behind him. Ultraviolet's jaw drops when she sees how beaten up he looked. His damp bleach blonde hair was literally glued to his head with blood, and his face and body was horribly bruised. She can still see the cuts she made on him…

"I'll call you whatever I want. How'd you get out?" X-Rated asks curiously.

Cashmere says nothing. Terror and rage in his eyes, he holds out his arm.

"Take it out." He demands.

"What?" Ultraviolet asks.

"Your fucking leader captured both me and the drunken idiot and put a tracker in me. So take it out!" Cashmere snarls.

"A tracker?" X-Rated comes closer and observes Cashmere's wrist. "Did you see what kind?"

"No, I was still knocked out. She told me she put it in afterwards." Cashmere tells him. "Do you know how to get it out?"

"Why did Severa put a tracker in you?" Ultraviolet counters.

"She wants me to lure the Aftermath out. It's an assassination plot." He growls. "And if I go to them and tell them to hide, then she'll track me and bury me alive."

X-Rated and Ultraviolet exchange a glance.

"How can we trust you?" X-Rated asks cautiously.

"Fuck! I'm not asking you to trust me!" Cashmere wails. "Just get it out of my arm!"

"Odds are, it's a very high-class tracker." X-Rated says. "It's impossible to get it out with just a knife or a magnet."

Cashmere's blue eyes were full of terror. "There has to be a way."

"Surgery could help." Ultraviolet says.

"And where am I going to get surgery?" Cashmere snaps. "Tell them that a deranged murderer is after me."

"It could work." X-Rated narrows his eyes. "Or I could just tear it out."

"Shut up, R-Rated." Cashmere snarls.

"How hard is it to remember X-Rated?" He crosses his arms over his chest. "At least I'm not named after a clothing line."

"Is this helping?" Ultraviolet cuts in.

Cashmere glares at Ultraviolet. X-Rated says, "Now, this isn't going to work, is it?"

"What?" They both look at him.

X-Rated stares at Cashmere for a while. Muttering under his breath, "I can't believe I'm doing this," He turns to Cashmere and says, "Hear me out, here."

Cashmere raises his chin and stares at X-Rated challengingly.

"This is going to sound funny." X-Rated says with a tiny chuckle. "But, we're in the same boat here."

"What—"

"Severa has betrayed us." X-Rated says. After hearing it, Ultraviolet feels that hollowed space in her open up. Their own leader, betraying them? It's so hard to believe—

"I don't believe it." Cashmere counters.

"She's going to kill the Aftermath, okay? There's no time to believe or to not believe—we have to be realistic." X-Rated growls.

"It's true." Ultraviolet pipes up. "You better think fast about trusting us, Cashmere. You don't want your precious Aftermath to die, do you?"

Cashmere glares at both of them, before swallowing. "Go on."

"Now, come on. You, I—we're very different. But now, we have a common goal here." X-Rated explains. "People may die—and we don't want them to."

Cashmere listens wordlessly.

"There's no room for trust anymore. We have no reason to trust each other. But we have to do something—anything, God damn it." X-Rated stares at Cashmere with hard green eyes. "I don't want to kill you, Cashmere. And if we both want the same thing, then why are we fighting?"

Cashmere gazes at the ground, before saying, "So, you want an alliance or something?"

"Not the kind of alliance where we hug and act like we're friends. Frankly, I think you're kind of a bitch, and you royally piss me off. But I'm sure you can say the same thing about me." X-Rated smiles.

Cashmere glares at X-Rated.

"What I'm asking is, we're going to have to—dare I say it—_trust_ each other for a little while." X-Rated says. "This shindig isn't going to last too much longer. And it'll end with us winning or us dying. What do we have to lose?"

Cashmere says nothing.

"So, how about it, Cashmere? We'll look out for each other. You listen for signs of Severa, and her betraying of us. And we'll listen for any assassination plots. Two birds, one stone, am I right?" X-Rated holds out his hand.

Cashmere stares at it.

"Come on." X-Rated says gently. "What do you have to lose?"

"My life." He says quietly.

"Just shake his hand, God damn it!" Ultraviolet snaps. "Just do it."

Cashmere's pale hand shakes X-Rated's.

"Good." X-Rated smiles. "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret doing this?"

Cashmere steps away. "Because we probably will."

* * *

><p>(Sam's POV)<p>

"Sam, wake up!"

Her eyes snap open and she's already on her feet. Assassin instincts give you that. But it was Freddie, staring at her.

"No, no, it's okay." He says, a hint of giddiness in his voice. "You won't believe it!"

"What?"

"They're on Severa's tale." He says eagerly. "They caught sight of her, and they're following her. She can't get away this time!"

Sam rubs her arms. "Let's hope." She says emptily.

Freddie rests his hand on her shoulder.

"I have some people watching Carly and them." He says softly. "It'll be okay, I promise."

"Are you sure they're covered?" She almost whimpers.

"They're looking out. Severa won't get near them. She already knows she's close to being caught—she wouldn't dare venture near."

Sam presses against Freddie. "What will we do after she gets caught?"

"Anything we want. Because it'll be over." He says with a smile.

"Are you sure?" She asks briefly. "What if they're still…you know, after me?"

"I wouldn't worry about—" Freddie says, but the vibration of Sam's phone interrupts them.

Sam feels the ice crawl into her veins. "I don't want to see what it is." She whispers.

"Neither do I." Freddie frowns. "But you know we have to do."

Sam wordlessly crosses the room and picks up her Pearphone. It wasn't a text—it was a request for a Facetime.

"Oh no…" Sam whispers. "Get out of frame, Freddie."

Once he moves, Sam bites her tongue and hits 'answer'.

Severa's face greets her. "Hi, Sammy!"

"What did you do?" She whispers.

"What did I do? Oh, I don't know." She says innocently. "What did you do? Call the cops on me?"

"I didn't call the cops." She says through gritted teeth.

"Aww. Lying again? It isn't going to work this time, I'm afraid." Severa says with a teasing frown. "Here's what we'll do. Tell me you admitted it and I'll show you a surprise."

Sam feels queasy. "There's nothing to admit."

"Or is there? You better hurry, Sam. You're gonna wanna see this one." Severa insists.

Sam hears coughing in the background, and her mouth drops and words fly out at the speed of light. "Okay! Okay! I did it! Show me, now!"

"As you wish." Severa smiles, using her pointed fingernails to press the flip button.

Sam almost drops the phone when she sees what she sees.

Alex, tied to one of the stone pillars in what are presumingly the tunnels, is wailing his head off through the tape over his mouth. He didn't look too bad, but his face was bruised and there were little cuts all over him. His hair, damp with sweat, sticks to his forehead as he screeches as loud as he can through the gag. His eyes cry out for help, to Sam, who's trembling now.

"The tunnels. You know where. Bring police with you and he's dead." The phone hangs up.

Before Sam can bolt out the door, Freddie's already grabbing her wrist. "I'm coming with you."

"But—"

"I'm part of the tech team, Sam. I'm technically not part of the police team. And I'm coming with you." He's already moving to the bedroom. "And I'm bringing a gun, end of story."

Freddie's phone rings. It's Carly. "She's probably worried about where Alex is." Sam murmurs.

"Don't answer it. We'll get him back to her before the night is over." He returns with a gun in his hand. "I've always wanted to use this."

"Come on," Sam says breathlessly. "We don't have much time!"


	22. Chapter 22: Dancing In The Dark

(Alex's POV)

As soon as he hears his kidnapper hang up the phone, he stops his muffling.

Too late.

The woman with the silver hair whirls around and knocks him hard, in his windpipe. A cry of pain escapes his throat, and that earns him more and more punches. He forces himself silent, letting the abuse continue until the blows finally halt.

"What did I tell you about saying anything?" She hisses in his face, her eyes only centimeters away from him.

He resists the urge to cough, and forces himself to keep eye contact.

"I'd kill you now, but you're bait. Sucks, huh? Yeah, I know. Cheer up. Keep your head high. You have one thing to look forward to. This will probably be a messy battle, so I won't have time to give you a torturous death. A simple, quick slice to their throat. Sound good?" She asks him.

He feels his heart threatening to pound out of his chest.

"You seem very afraid, Alex. That's too bad. Let's hope the fear doesn't cloud your mind. You try to bust out or misbehave again, in any way, a few little hits isn't going to cut it. I can and may kill the others in your family too. Your parents. Your wife. Your son. Yes, sir, I do kill children. Don't try me." Her thin lips curl into a smile. "We clear?"

All he can do is nod his head.

The woman moves away and Alex's head drops. He takes deep breaths through his blood-clotted nose, trying to focus. The world was slipping away from him, and he needed to hold on…he needed to hold on…he needed to hold on…

He hears a stone door closing, and his head snaps up again. A bright light was seeping through a doorway. Adjusting his eyes to the brightness, he can make out the threatening woman's thin, angular shape dragging…another body. He watches as the girl's head bobs up and down as the woman drags her along the stone cold floor. She ties her up against another stone pillar.

The woman snaps her head over and sees Alex watching. He immediately moves his head back and holds his breath, hoping and praying that this woman spares him for now.

He can hear her footsteps approaching, and he closes his eyes tightly.

"It's no one you know." Her icy voice plays around with his head. "You don't have to worry. Hopefully your last moments will be those in piece."

One can dream, can't they?

* * *

><p>(Freddie's POV)<p>

"So how are we going to do this?" He asks warily as he speeds over the limit, heading to the apartment.

"I watch out for her. If she tries to sneak up behind you, I'll warn you. And you blow her head off. Sound good?" Sam asks.

"…Why do I have to be the one who kills her?"

"What? You don't want to?" Sam looks shocked.

"Sam…I've…I've never actually…_murdered_ someone before." He stutters out.

"The first key to killing is to stop calling it 'murder'." Sam explains. "And it's not like we're killing an innocent pedestrian. That's what Severa does. You'll be saving lives."

Freddie is silent.

"If you want me to shoot, then I will." Sam says. "I'm giving you the offer of being the hero, though."

"I think I'll let you handle this one." He carefully hands Sam the gun as he parks in the parking lot. "Now, let's go over the safety precautions…"

"Freddie, there are no safety precautions." Sam stares at him. "There's a very good possibility that you and I can die in the next five minutes." She swallows. "You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"No." He says gruffly. "I'm coming with."

Sam briefly squeezes his hand. "Best of luck." She murmurs. "It's all we got."

They slip out of the car and they immediately walk down the stairs that lead to the tunnels. Both of them were hurting each other's hand as they reached the wall of darkness.

He feels Sam tap on his hand three times. He freezes in place. What does she mean? He guesses he satisfied her, because she stops and looks forward, her eyes searching in the darkness.

His eyes begin to adjust. He begins to make out stone pillars, one by one by one.

_What if she hid Alex in a secret location?_ He wants to ask her, but he doesn't dare speak.

They slowly begin to move forward. Sam's step is smooth, and doesn't make a sound. He struggles to walk quietly, freezing in place every time his steps make a sound. Sam still presses on, and Freddie is forced to follow.

In the dark, he can make out a shape. Something—no, _someone_—tied to one of the pillars. He exchanges a barely-seen glance with Sam.

_Is that him?_

Sam puts the gun in Freddie's hands and leans down. Her fingers fumble over the rope, working quickly and quietly. Alex's eyes snap open.

Both he and Sam put a finger to their lips, and he stays silent.

_Isn't this too easy?_

Freddie whips around repeatedly, listening to any brief sound of footsteps. He looks back and sees Sam using a knife to cut through the rope, and soon Alex was free. She helps Alex to his feet, and he stumbles a bit, but manages to stand upright.

Sam tries to move him away, but Alex was pointing to the other side urgently. Freddie stares at him, trying to understand what he is saying. Sam tries to move him away again, but Alex is already walking towards another pillar. He limps a bit, but seems determined.

Then Freddie sees him. Another body, tied to another pillar. Sam starts to walk towards it, and Freddie follows, helping Alex walk. He can see a gash on his leg, and sympathy ripples through him. Every emotion dries away from him when he recognizes the next body, who's still K., her strawberry blonde hair fallen over her eyes.

_Lindsay!_

Sam doesn't recognize her though, but she's already slicing the knife over the rope and freeing her. Her eyes half-open, staring at all of them with half-lidded eyes.

She opens her mouth. "Wh—"

Sam slaps her hand over her mouth. Bringing her to her feet, they are ready to _GTFO_ before Freddie hears something.

Something.

That was enough.

He feels a hand on his back and he whirls around. Before he could stop himself, he's pulling the trigger, and it releases. He hears a scream and then a thud, but nothing else. Nothing except the pounding in his ears. He didn't...He didn't…!

"Freddie, go!" Sam screeches. "Get them out of here!" She rips the gun out of his hands and he can do nothing, nothing except follow her orders. His hands grabbing both Lindsay and Alex's shoulders, he begins to run alongside them, trying to get them out.

"Sam, come on!" He wails. He hears another gunshot. "Sam! Are you okay?"

No response. He shoves the two by the stairs. "Go upstairs! Now!"

Turning back towards the darkness, he sees a flash of light in the darkness. "Sam!" He screams. "Sam! Are you—"

She reaches him and points upward, "Go, go, I got a picture, _go!_"

They run up the stairs, his head still spinning.


	23. Chapter 23: Murderer

(Sam's POV)

By the time she finally got out of the stone room, her heart was ready to beat out of her chest. _Well, that was a little too close._ She thinks to herself.

Freddie was standing there, all-but-holding a very delirious Lindsay. Alex had managed to regain his footing, although he didn't look like he was having a very good day. His face is bruised and cut up, and he was still limping.

"Okay, who the fuck was she?" Alex demands.

"That doesn't matter right now. What matters is getting the hell out of here. We'll get her later." Sam says, but Alex grips her wrist.

"You…I don't know where you've been all this time, Sam, but you have to listen. That psychopath is going to kill my wife and son if we don't do anything about it." He says harshly.

"You think I don't know that?" Sam hisses.

"Look, I sent reinforcement to your home." Freddie tells Alex. "Surveillance cameras and what not."

"Trust me, even if Severa likes to play with fire, she wouldn't just walk into flames if it isn't necessary." Sam tries to reassure. "You're not _that_ valuable."

"Well, that makes me feel better." Alex says drily.

"Can you walk?" Freddie asks him.

"Sort of." He attempts to walk straight but winces with every step. "And I have this headache…"

"You could have a concussion." Sam stands on her tip-toes, brushing the dirty blonde hair away from his forehead to investigate a bloody gash. Her gaze wanders to the girl who was blinking painfully. "What are we going to do about this one?"

"I don't know. I don't know how Severa even knew about her… Or if she'll have any memory of this tomorrow." Freddie gestures to Lindsay, who he was still holding.

"She won't." Alex says. "I sure don't remember how I got down there. She won't either—as long as we get her back to her place."

"We can do that. Come on, we need to get out of here." Freddie says urgently. Both he and Sam help Lindsay to her feet. Her eyelids have shuttered closed and she appeared to be mumbling something.

"What's she saying?" Freddie asks, listening closer.

"Nothing. She can't understand." Sam glares at Freddie, willing for him to stop pressing himself against the side of Lindsay's face. He doesn't get the hint, even if he's simply caring for a friend.

"She sounds like she's—"

"We need to move!" She snaps. Opening the car door, she helps Lindsay into the back, and Alex pulls himself in.

"Aah," Alex gasps. "Can we…can we get there soon?"

The gash on his leg was starting to ooze more blood with the effort of walking. Sam runs her fingers over the mark, causing him to flinch.

"Careful," Sam murmurs. "Try to stay awake. We'll get you help."

Sam gets into the passenger's seat. Freddie begins to drive in the direction of Carly's house. "So, what now?" Sam asks, hearing the fear in her voice.

"Help Alex and Lindsay. Then what? I don't know…" Freddie's voice is flat and Sam can tell that he's trying hard not to cry or have an emotional breakdown or something like that.

"Freddie…" Sam whispers, putting her hand on his knee. "It wasn't your fault."

"I killed someone." He whispers under his breath, almost too low to hear.

_You get used to it after a while,_ Sam doesn't dare say. She grips her phone hard.

"You got a picture." He says flatly. "Did you recognize him or her?"

Sam swallows. She was so concerned for Freddie's state of mind that she didn't address the betrayal. "Yes." She growls. "It…It was Snowcap, someone I used to know. She was in the Comebacks."

Sam glances back at Alex, who was gripping the edge of his seat. He was very pale and was panting. "Hang on," She whispers to him, but she's sure he wasn't listening anymore.

"If she was a Comeback, then why would she attack us?" Freddie asks Sam.

Sam grips her phone hard enough to almost break it. "Looks like there are more betrayers among us then I thought."

Freddie is silent for a while before speaking. "…So, what was she like?"

"What?"

"What was her personality? Did she have any family? A boyfriend or even kids?" Freddie's eyes have a glassy look to them now as he holds back tears.

"Freddie, it wasn't your fault." Sam tells him. "You weren't responsible."

"I pulled the trigger."

"She would have killed us all if you hadn't. Four lives or one life, Freddie. Which one would you take?"

Sam hears his chest heave, and tears manage to escape his eyes. "I left her there. I didn't say any kind of prayer or thanks or _anything_…"

Her heart aches for not only him, but now her mind was whirling. She thinks of all of the bodies she had left behind without a second thought. And he gets worked up because of one girl that he hadn't even known?

"Snowcap had been in the organization since she was eleven. She was twenty-two. She'd wasted the prime of her life killing for others. I saw her kill a Fatherhood child for no reason. Even I haven't done that." Sam doesn't add the detail that she has killed children before, but children that were attacking her. "Don't you see? She could've freed herself once the Comebacks ended, but she didn't. And now she'll be okay. Life… Life was cruel to her, and you freed her from it."

Freddie is silent for a while again. "Isn't that what you're doing?"

"Freddie, if I could leave them, I could." She glances back at Alex. His eyes have closed and his breath was short and jumpy. He was no longer conscious. "We need to get him help, and quick."

"I know." Freddie steps on the gas more. "Tell you what. We save these two. And then we make a run for it."

"Freddie, you've been saying that over and—"

"No. Not you hiding out with me and us toughing it out. I'm talking running." He removes his gaze from the road and his eyes bore into hers. "We leave. On a plane. Getting the hell out of here, forever."

"Y-You don't mean that." Sam stammers. "Leave your job? It's everything to you."

"Yeah, and so are you." She can't help but blush at that. "You with me or no?"

"We can't leave." She protests. "Not like this."

"Look, I know you don't want to leave Ultr—"

"No, it's not just them." She says, flustered. "It's…"

"It's what?"

"…Freddie, just please. It doesn't matter if we leave right now because Severa will find a way to bait us back. We need to destroy her."

Freddie nods a bit. "Okay…you have a point there. That's what we'll do. We get rid of her and then we'll talk."

Sam looks down at the ground.

Freddie eyes her, keeping one hand on the wheel. "You sure that's the only problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's another reason why you don't want to leave, isn't there?"

Sam grips the edges of her seat hard.

"Sam?"

"Just drive, okay? It doesn't matter."

"_Now_ what are you hiding?"

She refuses to snap out of him. "Just drive, okay?"

Freddie lets out a sigh. "You can't hide everything forever, Sam."

_Believe me, Benson. I know._

Silence fills the air yet again. Sam hears barely audible mumbling, and at first she thinks Freddie is talking to himself before she realizes that Lindsay is at it again.

"Listen," Freddie murmurs. "She's trying to say something."

"She's freaking knocked out. She doesn't know anything."

"Just listen, Sam."

Since she isn't driving, she turns her head and stares at Lindsay. Her lips are barely parted but incoherent words are spilling out, almost too soft to hear. At first she thinks that it is all nonsense, before she realizes something. _It all sounds the same. She is trying to say something._

Sam doesn't know if her subconscious is reaching out, trying to help them, but whatever words that she has must be important.

"Aff-er," Lindsay mumbles. "Affer maff."

"Affer maff?" Freddie is clearly forcing himself to not turn around to keep his eyes on the road. Alex needed medical as soon as possible. "What?"

"Affer maff…" She continues to whisper out. Her head moves side to side. "tun-hell."

"I don't understand what she's saying." Freddie shakes his head from side to side.

"Affer maff…Aftermath." Sam whispers. "Tunhell…tunnel. How would she…"

"Tunhell atak." Lindsay's fingernails dig into the seat.

"Tunnel… Tunnel attack." Sam concludes, feeling cold dread fill her chest. "Either the Aftermath would magically appear after years of hiding and attack an already fallen gang, or Severa has something up her sleeve. I'm guessing the second."

Freddie looks confused. "What would happen in the Aftermath died?"

"Severa would try to seize control." Sam can almost watch as Severa's entire plan stretches out in front of her. "Not just of Comebacks, but of Fatherhoods too. They wouldn't follow her if they knew she killed their leader…so she'll kill them in the tunnels. Where no one will see." Sam gestures to Lindsay. "Well, we have our piece of evidence now."

* * *

><p>(Freddie's POV)<p>

Freddie's eyes widen when he sees the number of police officers crowded around Carly's house. Sam's eyebrows are raised as well, but she makes quick work of helping Alex out of the car.

"Get someone!" Sam hisses.

Freddie runs over to the backyard. Carly and her son are huddled there, tears staining their faces as they talk with investigators. Her eyes light up when she sees Freddie.

"We found him," Freddie breathes out. "He's injured, though…"

At that same moment, Sam manages to drag Alex's sunken body to the yard. Two officers walk up, calling ambulances. Carly moves to her husband, squeezing his hand briefly before they ask her to give him some room. Her eyes drift over to Sam. Freddie freezes, realizing that this is the first time Carly and Sam have confronted to each other without running from cops.

"Sam…" Carly whispers.

Sam only stares back, looking as if she didn't know what to say.

Carly walks over, more tears spilling out of her eyes. "Where did you go?" Her chest heaves.

Sam says nothing, only hugs her friend tightly. Freddie just stands back and watches the two friends, who have stood the test of time, sob into each other's arms. He can see Sam crying as well. Seeing them brings tears to his eyes as well. He'd thought he'd never see this again…

Carly steps back, her gaze set on Freddie. Freddie walks over and joins the hug. The three of them have stood by each other through so much, but they have separated.

_Things will change now,_ He thinks to himself as he chokes on tears. Well, not if they leave Seattle. But everything is a possibility now.

Carly manages to detach herself as she and Max sit beside Alex, holding his hand as they wait for the ambulance.

"Hurry," Freddie whispers in Sam's ear. "We need to get Lindsay back."

"But she might know more. Maybe we should wait until she regains consciousness."

"Sam, please. I…I don't want to drag anyone else into this."

Sam stares at him, and then dips her head.

"Very well." She says. "Let's do it." They slip back to the car. "You know where this chick lives?"

"Yeah… She lives in the same apartment as Brad." Freddie says. "It shouldn't be too far from here."

Driving once again, he keeps glancing over at Sam who was attempting to stay awake. "It's fine to rest your eyes." He tells her.

Sam looks over at him. _Does she think she'll wake up?_ "Mkay," She says finally, letting her eyelids droop.

He wants to sleep too, but he knows he won't. Because his dreams will be plagued by the girl who he never knew, just watching him in his sleep. Telling him how he took her life away. The thought sends more tears threatening to spill out, and this time he lets them all out with no hesitation.

He remembers the picture Sam took with her cell phone. She had the flash on… Which means Snowcap's face was taken. He knows that if he looks at it, he will forever have dreams of her face. But… But he deserves it. He killed her. He has to.

Freddie grabs Sam's cell phone, which was lying beside her thigh, and he goes to her recent photos. He slows down on the road and braces himself for the hell he is soon to endure. Finally, he clicks the picture.

The girl's face is smaller and pale, with messy brown hair that ended right above her shoulders framing her face. Her eyelids were half open, revealing misty eyes empty of life. And the blood…

Freddie stops the car for a second and lets the sobs overtake him. He's surprised that he didn't wake Sam, but she must have been so exhausted, and he was grateful. He cries for the girl who was now dead because of him. When the sun rises tomorrow she will not see the light of day. Days will pass and no one will ever see her body, which was left behind in those bitter tunnels. Her body will rot and no one will say grace over her name.

_I'm so sorry,_ He chokes out silently. _Please, please forgive me. I am so sorry…_

He takes one last glance at the picture, ready to say a prayer over her name, before he sees it. Right at the edge of the photo were two tips of sneakers. Both dotted with blood. Undoubtedly Sam's…

He shakes her awake. She springs up, looking panicked. "What? Why has the car stopped?"

He holds up the picture. "Sam, you got yourself in the frame!"

Sam looks at it. "I know."

"Why would you do that?"

Sam doesn't respond to that. "Do you want to delete it?" Her expressions soften. "It's your choice, Freddie."

Freddie glances back at the picture, swallowing hard. "No. Not… Until I make up for it."

"But it wasn't your—"

"Sam, please." He whispers. "I've never hurt anyone like that before. It's a mistake I will never forget. I know if you had done it you would have eventually gotten over it, but I can't! I can't just pretend it never happened! I need to find a way to… I don't even know." His grip tightens on the phone. "Please."

Sam nods a bit. "Of course." She murmurs.

Freddie gazes back at her, and his eyes fall to her hands. How many people have fallen victim to her? How did she shrug it off and not care?

_How does she have no feeling towards them?_


End file.
